Remember Me
by hghrules
Summary: Sky is back - but he's been forgotten by everyone he holds dear. (Unfortunately, he has /not/ been forgotten by the Angry Manager.)
1. Rewind

_FRICK GUYS_

 _THIS IS LIKE FOUR THOUSAND WORDS XD_

 _AND YEAH THE TITLE IS REMEMBER ME, FIGHT ME ABOUT IT_

 _SHADLOX ON WATTPAD SUGGESTED "LOVE ME" BUT ALL I COULD THINK OF WHEN I READ THAT WAS YANDERESIMULATOR, SORRY, FRIEND XD_

 _BUT THEN DALIATDM SUGGESTED "REMEMBER ME" AND HONESTLY WHY NOT XD ALSO WHEN I ABBREVIATE THIS ONE, LIKE RM, FM, AND BM, I'MA JUST TYPE "RRM" BC YEH_

 _ALSO LET'S ALL GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO SNOWFLAKEMANIAC ON WATTPAD FOR WRITING THE ALT ENDING SUMMARY THAT BASICALLY IS THE INSPIRATION FOR ALL OF THIS! LIKE DANG THANKS SO MUCH_

 _IM HALF-MAD BC NOW IM TANGLED UP IN A FOURTH BOOK, BUT IM ALSO THREE-QUARTERS THANKFUL BECAUSE I REALLY DIDNT WANT TO LET THIS SERIES GO XD_

 _WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? OF **COURSE** I CAN MATH!_

 _ALSO, SINCE IM SO ATTACHED TO THIS UNIVERSE_

 _HOW WOULD YOU GUYS FEEL ABOUT MAYBE POSSIBLY A ONESHOT BOOK AFTER THIS? BECAUSE I WOULDNT FEEL LIKE I WAS DRAGGING THE SERIES ON TOO MUCH, BUT I'D ALSO BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THE UNIVERSE AND WRITE TINY LITTLE ADVENTURES WHEN I MISSED IT_

 _OPINIONS?_

 _ALSO, TO ALL YOU FANFICTION DOT NET PEOPLE WHO ARE CONFUSED: IM SORRY. BUT TAKE THIS FOURTH BOOK ANYWAYS. XD_

 _DEAR LORD THERE IS SO MUCH UNNECESSARY SETOSOLACE IN THIS_

 _LITERALLY THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IS PRETTY MUCH JUST SETOSOLACE WHICH LEADS INTO A SINGLE SENTENCE OF PLOT XD_

 _OKAY IM DONE RAMBLING, GUYS_

 _EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE-AY-YOO-TIFUL RULERS!_

 _OH MY LORD YOU GUSY DONT UDNERSTAND HOW EXCITED IAM_

 _MY FINGERS ARE LITERALLY SHAKING AS I TYPE THIS OMG IM SO FRICKING EXCITEDA JSLDKFJ SDFKLSD HFBDSKLJSDF_

 _I LVOE YOU GUYS SO MUCHA SLDKFJSDKFSD_

 _YOURE THE BEST AHHHH_

 _*dies*_

 _FRICK FRICK FRICK I ALMOST FORGOT_

 ** _MINOR SELF-HARM TRIGGER WARNING_**

 _VAGUE MENTION/MEMORY OF SELF-HARM_

 _IF THIS IS GONNA BOTHER YOU, JUST SKIP TO AFTER THE FIRST THREE SUNSHINES_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 1: Rewind**

 **Seto's POV**

"Brice!" I call out, smiling slightly as I reach out a hand toward him. "Mind coming with me to cast a spell on the city?" Never mind that it's the perfect opportunity to show off and try to impress him, it's an excuse to spend more time with him!

"No, I've got a thing planned with Annie," Brice answers, pausing before he leaves the lab. He doesn't turn around, so his back still faces me.

"Ah, all right." I force my smile to stay in place, despite the fact that he can't see it. Is he mad at me..? "Free afterwards?"

"Seto, I've got better things to do than follow you around being your little apprentice pet."

O-Oh.

"I- Sorry, I-"

"Hmm, sorry. _Sorry._ As if. You don't care, Seto," Brice spits. I bite the inside of my cheek and squeeze my eyes shut. "You never care, at least not about anything other than your potions and spells."

"Woah," I say, as though I'm perfectly fine, nothing more than surprised and confused. I swallow hard and clear my throat as inaudibly as possible. Keep it together, Seto. "Brice, I-"

"Only want me to tag along because I've got some of your stupid magic in me?" Oh my Notch. I feel sick. "I know, don't worry."

"I just want-"

He cuts me off again, and I dig my nails into my hands. "To get your magic back and be done with it. Notch, sorcerers _are_ heartless."

My mouth drops open, and I forget to breathe for a couple of moments. No, no, no, not Brice. Not him.

"Listen, don't try to talk to me anymore," Brice continues, and I rub my sleeves against my eyes roughly to keep them from spilling tears. I _can't cry._ "I'd love it if I could avoid hearing from you ever again." Oh, Jeb.

"Brice," I whimper, cursing myself for showing such weakness, but Brice just walks outside, slamming the door behind him. Breathing too fast and too hard, I back up slowly, eventually running into the wall of the lab. Finally, tears streak down my face, and I gasp quietly as a few potion bottles around me shatter into tiny little shards. No, no, keep it under control! Oh, Notch…

I sink down to the floor, choking on sobs as a gust of purple wind blows over a cauldron of water and a purple swirl of light knocks over a brewing stand. No, no, no. I don't want to be that heartless sorcerer again. I want Brice to sit down in front of me and tell me that I _do_ have a heart, that I _can_ and _do_ care, that I _am_ worth something. I want Brice to pull me into a hug like he used to whenever he'd find me like this, broken down and crying and frantically rubbing at my left wrist and causing every inanimate thing around me to shatter.

 _I want Brice._

I bite my tongue and dig my nails into my wrist. Of course, the blood I believe I deserve doesn't come - there was only ever the one cut, from that one time, so very long ago. It's just a memory of a scar now.

A group of citizens had just finished trashing my lab, and I had walked in and caught them in the act. I hadn't had the heart to be mad at them - and I definitely didn't want to prove them right about me being a terrible monster. But, quivering in fear, they had left anyways the moment they saw me. And as they left, one of them called out, "You deserve this, Seto Sorcerer, you heartless piece of crap. You deserve a lot worse than this! You deserve to have lava poured over your spawn point!" And at the time, I had snorted and locked the door behind them.

But, afterwards. A few hours after they had left, when my lab was covered in glass shards because I couldn't bring myself to clean any of it up, when the whole house was far too quiet for my liking, when I had nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. That's when I broke down. I collapsed on the floor, surrounded by shards of potion bottles, creating even more of a mess with my out-of-control emotions. And then I looked down at one of the glass shards, and I picked it up, and I couldn't stop repeating that citizen's words to myself: "You deserve this, Seto."

And then Brice had walked in through the back door, seen the mess, seen the blood, though there hadn't been much of it. And he had kneeled down in front of me and taken the shard out of my hands, and he had bandaged my wrist even though I kept telling him that I could just heal it as soon as I was calmed down enough, and he had swept the entire room and stuffed all the glass shards in his backpack. And then Brice had sat down in front of me again, and he had held my hands in his and made me look him in the eyes and promise I'd never do it again, because I deserved better. That's what he told me. And I told him it didn't even matter, because I'm a sorcerer and could just heal myself, and even if I had died, I would have just respawned. But Brice shook his head and said that, if I did this often, I would be killing my mind more than my body.

And, oops, I had started crying again. But Brice had held me, telling me over and over again that I was worth so much, that I'm so much more than all the citizens wanted me to believe, that I had a bigger heart than any of those terrible citizens, and that he _cared_ about me.

And I think I fell in love with him that day.

And now here I am, in the same broken down position, except there's no Brice here to stop me, or to hold me. And yet… I made a promise.

But Brice isn't here.

Brice him _self_ told me I was heartless, just like all those citizens used to. And so- so if one of the things he said back then has turned out to be void - does that mean all the others are void, too? I'm worthless. I'm so much less, even, than what the citizens used to think of me. I _am_ heartless.

And Brice does not care about me.

Well. If all the other things are void, then perhaps the promise is, too. Perhaps just one more time wouldn't hurt-

The sound of heavy footsteps pounds outside the lab door, and I jump to my feet, snap my fingers to clean up the mess I've made, and then wipe my eyes and move over to set the potion brewing stand upright so that I'll look like I'm actually doing something.

"All right, there, Ty?" I ask as he throws open the door.

"Yes. Fine," he huffs. "I'm fine."

I snort and raise an eyebrow. "Sky?"

"Close."

"Ah, Tyler."

And so Ty continues on about Tyler, and I brush aside my stupid feelings that I'm not even supposed to be having, because they mess with my magic _terribly._ And I hand Ty a jetpack and joke around with him and fly us into the air and prepare for a suicide mission, because, hey, whatever. Worst case scenario, I get hurt. Best case scenario, I save the city. Win-win situation, honestly.

I only break down a few times in front of Ty, which is impressive, in my opinion, because I feel like curling up and dying in a hole. Brice means the world to me, though I prevent myself from showing it as much as possible, and- and my world just told me that he didn't want to hear from me ever again.

Oh.

Maybe he wants me to do the opposite of what I promised, then.

He doesn't want to hear from me _ever again._

The Respawn Mechanism is off.

If I die, I will not come back.

Brice will never hear from me ever again.

He'll get his wish.

"Yeah, Ty. He totally cares about me. He totally cares about a heartless- h-heartless sorcerer." I bite my lip and taste blood, but quickly curl my lips in to hide in from Ty.

"Seto…" Ty trails off, and I think he's saying something else now, but I'm on autopilot, and I can't manage to focus on anything other than the fact that Brice would not care if I died today. I can fail this spell - I can put my _everything_ into this spell - and when I inevitably fail and fall, Brice will not mind. Ty may be a little sad, but he'll be fine, physically - I've given him that jetpack.

"Seto, I don't think you should attempt this immediately after having a breakdown like that-" Ty begins.

"It wasn't a breakdown, I'm fine. I don't need Brice, okay?" I say, lying through my teeth.

"O-Okay..."

Ty cares. At least a little. It'd be pretty terrible - _pretty heartless -_ of me to die in front of him.

Maybe I'll try to survive this...

Or maybe I won't.

I begin the spell. Purple magic wisps around me, and green specks representing the disease float up from the city. It's all going quite well - honestly, I'm quite proud of myself. I've never performed a spell with such a great effect over such a large range.

Notch, I can't wait to tell Brice!

Oh. Brice.

My magic falters a little, and I struggle to keep control as my emotions waver. Don't think about Brice! Don't think about Brice. Don't think about how he doesn't want to be your friend anymore. Don't think about how you'll have to join Skylox in the Broken Heart club. Don't think about how- about how Brice thinks- Brice thinks you're- you couldn't be in the broken heart club, anyways, because you- you're _heartless._

 _Just a worthless, heartless sorcerer._

My magic betrays me, and Ty and I fall.

* * *

"Seto," Brice breathes, and I can't see anything but his still-black hair as he hugs me close to him. "Oh, _Seto."_

"Wha- Ah," I mumble into his hair, pulling back and glancing around the lab. "I failed the spell, didn't I? Figures."

"Seto," Brice cries, and my eyes go wide. "You- Stop it. Don't say that like - like you didn't just _risk your life_ trying to save the city."

"It wouldn't have worked anyway," I mutter, sitting up completely and running my hands through Brice's hair. "Shh, it's all right. Are you all right?"

"Please don't leave me, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it," he bawls, and I wince. I did this to him. I made him sad. Heartless, Seto. Worthless, Seto. Can't do _anything_ right, Seto.

"L-Let me see," Brice says, interrupting my thoughts as he detaches himself from me and wraps both of his hands around both of my wrists. He smiles slightly upon feeling the unmarked skin. "I'm so sorry, Seto."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh, yes, I did," Brice laughs sadly. "I'm so sorry. I know you care. You care more than I do most of the time. You're not- not heartless, like they used to say you are. Like _I_ said you are. You _aren't."_

I nod slightly, pretending to believe him.

"I'm so sorry," he says again, leaning forward, and then he pulls me toward him and soon we're _kissing,_ his lips moving against mine so _desperately_ , as though it's the last contact we'll ever have with each other.

But then he pulls back, eyes wide but certainly not wider than my own, and says, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I didn't mean that, Seto. I don't- we're just friends. Sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Right. Because how could he love you? He knows you couldn't ever love him back, you heartless sorcerer.

Can't do _anything_ right.

* * *

It's quiet, too quiet in the lab. And I'm wishing I were there, wishing I could protect Brice, is he okay? Should I go to the asylum? It isn't safe, I _told_ him not to go in there. He's going to get hurt.

I grit my teeth and go about making a few more potions - you can never have too many. But then I feel it, this desperate yearning for just a little more time, like someone out there is wishing for just a few extra moments to take care of unfinished business, to let go of too-secret secrets, to confess a feeling they've tried too hard to hide.

And then, against my will, my magic detects the person feeling it-

 _Brice._

"No!" I shout, shooting into the air and hovering there for a moment. The potions I was making explode in my hands, and I silently curse my magic. Brice is hurt! Brice is in trouble. Brice could be _dying._ How do I save him? What can I do? There isn't time to follow him to the asylum, and when I try to teleport to the asylum, some sort of barrier stops me from moving forward.

But if I can't move myself in - maybe I can move him out?

No, it's impossible. If I'm teleporting someone, I have to be able to have skin contact with them, and I also have to have consent. Neither of those conditions can be met at the moment.

So what else is there? I could, I could-

 _I could summon him._

I've never summoned a living creature before. I tried once when I was younger, and it ended terribly - the "lab" exploded, and I died immediately only to respawn in the crater left by my badly handled magic. But now…

It'll be like the city-saving suicide-mission all over again. It probably will not work.

 _But, for Brice…_

I close my eyes, breathe out slowly, and try to picture Brice in my mind. _"Summone B-R-I-C-E."_

I cry out in pain as my magic drops me unceremoniously to the floor, and several potion bottles shatter around me. Come on, come on, _work,_ do something _right_ for once, Seto, _please,_ just this once-

The room flashes purple, and the purple mist lingers as a figure appears in it.

"W-Wha- What is- how-" Brice sucks in a breath, glances up, jumps to his feet. "Seto!"

"I-I'm- I'm f-fine," I lie through gritted teeth, willing myself to get off my hands and knees but not exactly succeeding. "S-Sorry, I've n-never tried that before; s-summoning a living, breathing person is m-much more difficult than summoning an object." An understatement. "A-Are you-" I choke back a violent cough. "Are you okay, Brice?"

"Are _you_?" he asks immediately. "'Cause you don't _look_ okay."

"F-Fine- I-I think- just- i-if you're up for it, we need to- need to do the others." I take in a shuddering breath and squeeze my eyes shut as I scratch lightly at my left wrist. Oh, Notch, he's not going to want to. I can't force him. I _won't_ force him. I- I can do it on my own. I _have_ to. "But if you're hurt, I-I can do it-"

"No, you can't," Brice says firmly. His voice drops to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Seto. I... I'm sorry. You're my best friend, and I... I shouldn't have stormed out and left you alone that day, I'm so sorry, I was being so stupid and I- I know you care about me, Seto, _duh,_ you're the most caring person I know, and..." What is this, his second, third apology? How many will it take for me to actually start believing it? Admittedly, I get closer every time.

"T-Two things," I say, ignoring both the 'friend' comment and the way my stomach flipped anyways. "One: You don't know how much that means to me, Brice. Two: Our other friends are still in trouble."

His eyes widen, and now is not the time to be thinking about how cute he looks. No emotions. Only concentration. "Right! How?"

"Take my hand." Emotions _off,_ dang it. "Try not to feel anything. If you must feel _something,_ feel desperation to save your friends."

Uh, okay, this isn't going to work.

"Perhaps we should just, um... I'll put my hand on your arm?"

He blushes terribly, and I fight back a blush of my own. No emotions! Geez, I take _such_ risks, working with him daily.

"All right. Not perfect, but it'll have to do," I mumble, closing my eyes. "My apologies if we begin to float. _Summone S-K-Y, J-A-S-O-N, Q-U-E-N-T-I-N, I-A-N, M-I-T-C-H, J-E-R-O-M-E, A-L-E-S-A, T-Y-L-E-R. Potestatem transferre alica post – a fonte ad source duo."_

The room flashes purple, and I scream.

* * *

"Brice," I gasp out, jumping up and then swaying slightly. Brice squeaks and quickly gets to his feet, holding onto my arm to steady me. "W-Wait- Alesa-"

"You shouldn't be standing," Brice warns me, and I look over at him to see tears leaving tracks down his pale cheeks. Why is he so pale? What happened?

"Are you all right?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows and forgetting the urgency of the situation for a moment.

"Am _I_ all right?" he sob-laughs, wrapping his arms around me tightly. Oh. "Please don't leave, please don't ever leave, I don't want to lose you, Seto, you mean so much to me..."

I swallow hard, and my eyes widen. "U-Um-"

"Promise me you won't ever die for real," Brice begs, sniffling and burying his head in my chest.

"I- Okay," I say dumbly. Brice laughs quietly, sniffling again.

"No dying allowed," he giggles, wiping his eyes and pressing a quick kiss to my cheek.

"I-I- Ah- I-" Oh, imagine how terribly I must be blushing. Luckily, since I temporarily transferred most of my remaining magical energy to Brice to protect him during the spell, my emotions aren't able to cause too much damage. Instead, the magic messing up my lab at the current time is tinted yellow.

"Oh, Notch, I-" Brice smiles awkwardly and scratches at the back of his neck. "Sorry. Just a friend thing."

Dear Notch- do my eyes deceive me? I- This boy is lying. He's _lying._ And that means-

I try to stop myself from literally glowing as I shake my head slightly and walk toward the sound of Sky's voice. "Seto!" Brice calls, running after me. He stays glued to my side as I pull him through the door. "Seto, wait, you need to rest!"

"We can't use the cake in the asylum," I huff, admittedly quite worn out by the walk to the door. "They tainted it, it's useless. However, I've just had the strangest dream..." I glance over at Brice, who smiles innocently, yet apologetically. Yeah, it's him. "And I need to know if Alesa has any of her medicine left. I suddenly recall having worked her vaccination into her most recent bottle of pills..."

I grin as Sky goes on a wild run to retrieve Alesa's medicine, and Brice laughs and laces his fingers with mine. He blushes incredibly afterwards, and my smile changes to a softer one.

If it wasn't already blaringly obvious that I'm in love with this boy, it certainly is now.

* * *

"U-Um- S-Since we're on the topic of dates, and all that-"

And in that moment, I can hear his emotions and his thoughts even louder than I can feel S- hmm. Louder than the thoughts and emotions of anyone else I've ever met. _"He's going to say no, you've hurt him so much, Brice, oh, Notch, how could he ever forgive you-"_

"If you're asking me to go on a date with you," I say bravely, refusing to let him put himself down any further, "I'd love to go on far more than one."

Brice faints, and I allow myself to smile as I catch him.

* * *

"Oh my Jeb, I'm holding your hand," Brice breathes, swaying slightly. I laugh and squeeze his hand. "And it's not even to keep you alive!"

Well. In a way, it sort of is.

I smile. "If you don't pick a place, we'll be walking around all day."

"I don't think I'd mind that so much, with you by my side," he replies, and I hold back a blinding grin.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to cast a hover spell on us both, because walking is hard."

"Ugh," Brice groans good-naturedly, and he's about to say something more, but someone interrupts him.

"Walking is hard? So is feeling, apparently, for monsters like _you,"_ a citizen hisses, and my eyes widen. Sure, there are still some citizens that don't like me, but the extreme Seto-haters are few and far between, and I haven't been approached by one in years. At first, I'm too surprised to be hurt by his comment.

Brice frowns. "This isn't your conversation."

"Notch, why are you hanging out with this-" he spits the next word, "- _sorcerer_? Are you on a _date_ with it? Don't you know that it can't feel like you and I can? It'll never love you back." The citizen turns back to me and simply glares, as if my very existence personally offends him. I suppose it does.

Brice frowns even more, beginning to look a little angry, and I drop his hand and take a nervous step back, swallowing hard and gently running the index finger of my right hand over the scar on my left wrist.

"Seto can feel just as well as the rest of us," says a different, onlooking citizen. "And I'm fairly sure he feels a _lot_ more than _you_ do." The first citizen, the Seto-hater, cringes and steps back a little.

"Also," says a citizen with curly brown hair, sunglasses, and a pendant similar to Ant's, "I'd like to remind you that Seto's sorcererness has saved the lives of everyone in this city _more_ than once."

"And," Brice finishes, and I wince in anticipation, "my _boyfriend_ is not an _it._ "

I gape at him as he pulls me closer and wraps his arms around me. "You're worth the world to me, Seto. Don't ever let idiots like this guy make you feel bad about yourself."

"HOLD UP," the third citizen shrieks. "YOU GUYS ARE _DATING!?"_

"S-So-" I clear my throat, ignoring the shouty guy. "So you really- you actually meant it? When you said you didn't mean any of the stuff you said... that one time."

Brice's eyes widen. "Oh, Notch, Seto, of course! I'm so so sorry I said all those terrible things, I- Can I tell you a secret, Seto?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Um... sure?"

"I love you."

"Oh, my Notch," I laugh, relieved, and the Seto-Hater sticks his nose up as though to say 'I told you so.' But then I continue with, "I love you, too. I've loved you for so long, Brice."

"Well," Brice replies, smiling slightly. "That went _far_ better than expected."

"Oh my Notch," the shouty brunette citizen breathes. "It's canon. Holy crap, have you told Ashley!? She's gonna go ballistic!"

"You know Ashley?" I ask, pulling away from Brice slightly and raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah?" the shouty citizen snorts. "Holy crap, Setosolace and Skylox can totally double date!"

"Skylox..?" Brice asks.

"Oh no," Shouty Citizen whispers.

I frown. "Are you all right, sir?"

"Don't call me 'sir!'" Shouty Citizen screeches. "Oh, Notch, you guys don't remember me! Why don't you guys remember me!?" He freezes. "Does _Ty_ remember me?"

"Um..?"

"Where's Ty!?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"Forget it, I'll find him myself!"


	2. We Are Not Toddler

_Helllllllo, friends! I combined chapter two with chapter three bc chapter two was too short, but now chapter two is far too long xD its fine its fiIEN_

 _Ahem, anyways. Expect very long chapters for this book. 2,000-4,000 words, usually. It's very freeing not to have to struggle to hit a certain word count – this book can be as dang short as I want it to be! That's_ awesome. _Also really fun to write except aHHH I've been getting really out of character in the coming chapters and im like oh crap o.o I mean I guess that's ok cuz no one remembers sky and like he shaped a lot of their personalities in one way or another butnotch daNG IT_

 _Anyways I have like 16000 words written so I am set like dear lord also pREPARE FOR A MILDLY EMOTIONAL ENDING OK BAI EN-JUH-HOY_

 _…_

 _I just proofread it and_

 _This is the stupidest thing I swear to notch_

 ** _i love it_**

 _sO MUCH GAY_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 2: #Tylesa Had Better Not Be Canon/We Are Not Toddler**

 **Seto's POV**

"Now, hold on," I say, running to catch up to Shouty Citizen, who has started toward Ty's house. "Explain yourself."

"Ty will remember," the citizen says determinedly. "He has to!"

"Remember what?" Brice asks, running next to me. He starts panting a bit, so I cast a small floating spell on him, and he laughs as his feet lift off the ground.

"Oh my Notch, that was adorable," Shouty Citizen breathes as he turns a corner.

"Ty isn't at his house," I tell him, and something inside me makes me trust this man enough to tell him Ty's whereabouts. "He and Alesa are at the pizzeria."

 _"The_ pizzeria?"

"Um…" I raise an eyebrow. "I guess so?"

"Wait-" The shouty citizen freezes in his place, and I skid to a halt, barely managing to keep Brice from flying into a building. "Wait. If _I_ never existed, then- Then, hold up, is Alesa dating Ty!?" He reels back as though I've punched him in the face, and I roll my eyes.

"Calm down, Ty doesn't like Alesa like that."

"But Alesa likes Ty like that, so if we keep hoping~" Brice singsongs, and I sigh.

The citizen hisses at Brice, and I step in between them. "Look, sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from us. Any violence will not be taken kindly."

Shouty Citizen huffs. "Come on, guys! You _know_ me, I'm your _friend!_ This is _my_ city! The city's enforcers are part of _my_ army! How can you just forget!?"

"I think you may have gone insane," Brice comments, and Shouty Citizen groans.

"Now, wait just a moment," I say, furrowing my eyebrows. "You said you never existed? You said we _forgot_ you." I turn toward Brice. "Do you think-"

"Oh my Notch," Brice whispers. "No way!"

"Ha, see, you're catching on!" the forgotten citizen exclaims, grinning.

I spin around, motioning with my hands for Brice and the citizen to follow me as I head toward the town's most well-known pizzeria. "All right. If what you're saying is true, then what happened to you has never happened before. Assuming one of the monsters killed you, which would be the only way to make everyone else forget about your existence, you would _not_ respawn. Your coding would have been erased. However, since you did respawn, I'm guessing that your fate was teetering between two endings - you could have died forever and been erased permanently from everyone's memories, or you could have respawned normally with no other consequences. Somehow, you managed to end up with a little bit of both situations. You respawned normally - but everyone still forgot you. The Respawn Machine must have caught you, somehow, a split second _after_ you were killed. The memory damage had already been done, but the machine was still able to save your life."

"Right. That's great and all, but how do I make you guys remember me again?" the forgotten citizen asks, and, for the first time, I realize how familiar he looks.

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On a lot of things," I answer, pushing open the pizzeria doors. "To begin with, exactly how quickly the Respawn Mechanism caught you after your death. And, _how_ it caught you. Ty, Alesa!"

The two jump at my shout, and then they laugh and turn to face us. "Seto, Brice, hey! Who's this?" Alesa asks, scooting over to allow me some room on the booth. Ty moves over a bit to allow Brice some room on the other booth, and the forgotten citizen stands awkwardly at the end of the table.

"Ah, this is… I'm sorry, I don't believe I ever caught your name," I say, frowning and looking up at him.

"Oh, I'm- yeah, I'm Sky, sorry," he reveals awkwardly, laughing slightly at the end of his sentence. He looks down, but then glances up to gauge Ty's reaction. "Hi."

"Hi," Ty breathes, looking up at Sky. Neither of the boys breaks eye contact for a while. Then Ty jumps a bit in his seat and shouts "Ow!" while glaring at Alesa.

"You zoned out," Alesa says, shrugging and trying to hide a smirk.

"Sorry. Uh, nice to meet you, I'm Ty," he says, turning to face Sky again.

"I know," Sky begins, smiling softly. Then his smile drops. "I-I mean- Oh, Notch, that sounded creepy, but I swear I'm not a stalker! I'm your friend! Er, I used to be- I still am? Wait, crap…"

"Sky, here, claims to have been erased from everyone's memories," I explain.

"Everyone being..?" Alesa asks.

"Literally everyone. Remember how I was telling you guys about the monster things, with their insane power? Yeah, if Sky's telling the truth, we _did_ lose someone during that battle - and that someone was him."

"Notch," Ty murmurs, looking down at the table. Then his head whips up, lightning fast, to stare wide-eyed at Alesa. "Do you think that Fable character was named after-"

"Oh my Jeb I ship it," Alesa whispers, eyes as wide as Ty's.

"Fable character..?" Sky asks.

"Uh, it's nothing," Ty replies, blushing quite impressively. I didn't know a face could _be_ that red.

Sky laughs. "Okay, if you say so." Then his eyes grow sad. "But, um, so… do you, maybe… remember me? At all?"

"I have a vague remembrance," Alesa comments, shrugging.

"You look familiar, to say the least," I add.

"I think I maybe remember something including gold?" Brice asks, raising his eyebrows. Sky smiles a smile that is clearly _very_ forced.

"I'm sorry, Sky, I- Your name seems familiar? But it's a pretty common name, I guess, and we _did_ have that video game character that shared your name. No, I'm sorry, I don't remember you at all," Ty answers, smiling apologetically. "Are you sure we knew you?"

Sky drops the forced smile. Swallows hard. Forces a smile even faker than the last. "I- I-" He swallows again, blinks a few times. "M-Maybe- I- Sorry, to, to interrupt your lunch, I- Maybe-" his voice cracks slightly, and he clears his throat and smiles more widely. "Maybe Jason will remember. S-Sorry, thanks, bye."

One more time, for good measure, I suppose, he widens his smile. And then, with one more "Sorry," he darts out the door.

 **Sky's POV**

My smile disappears the moment the door falls shut behind me, and silent tears run down my face. I silently curse myself as I take off my glasses to dry their lenses, but when I see my sorry reflection in them, I have to choke back a sob. This must have been what Ty felt like when I lost my memory.

Oh, Notch, I can't handle this. I had _just_ gotten him back, in more ways than one, and now… well, I kinda wish the Respawn Mechanism hadn't saved me.

 **Ty's POV**

"Did I say something wrong..?" I ask after Sky leaves.

"Absolutely," Seto sighs. "You and Sky _obviously_ used to be really close. The first person he wanted to see when he realized we didn't remember him was you."

"Plus, woah, what about those heart eyes you were giving each other?" Alesa laughs. "That was intense. I'm pretty sure you forgot your name for a moment there."

I blush. "S-Shut up, Alesa."

"I'll bet you five diamond blocks you and Sky were dating before he got almost-erased."

"Stop, oh my Notch," I mumble, looking down.

She snorts. "Regardless, you clearly like him."

"Come on, we just met," I huff.

"Yeah, but he's cute, isn't he?"

"Oh my Notch, Alesa."

"Much more attractive than the Fable character, I must say."

"Please stop, oh my Jeb."

"I'll bet you five _more_ diamond blocks that you'll fall back in love with him by the end of the week."

"Okay, Alesa, give him a break," Seto laughs, shoving her gently. "Although, I _would_ place money on the idea that _Sky_ , at least, is in love with _you-"_

"Seto!" I shout, standing up.

"Ty," Brice giggles, pulling me back down. "Oh my Notch."

An angry-looking man storms toward our table, very nearly releasing steam from his ears. "How many times will I have to say it," he growls, "before you finally begin to listen?"

"Say what..?" I ask, tilting my head.

"You are _banned_ from my restaurant, you and your obnoxious friend!"

"Maybe 'the pizzeria' will be your 'always,'" Alesa breathes, staring at me with wide eyes. I raise my eyebrows.

"Um..? I've never been banned from this restaurant, sir, and neither have any of my friends," I tell the angry manager.

He bristles. "I'm not falling for that again."

"Ty, you and Sky!" Alesa says, reaching across the table to shake my shoulders.

"Geez, calm down, hold on!" I protest, pulling back. "What?"

"You and Sky, you guys got banned from this place! I remember, because you were on the phone once, remember? With Sky. And he said ' _the_ pizzeria?' and you said, ' _the_ pizzeria.'"

"I- No, I don't remember that."

"Everyone shut up," Seto orders, running his hand through his hair. "All right. We all forgot. But this manager guy-"

"Get _out_ of my restaurant!"

"Brice, freeze him," Seto says, rolling his eyes and waving the manager off.

Brice bites his lip. "Um… _Duratis?"_ The angry manager is suddenly trapped beneath a thin layer of ice. Brice grins, and Seto smiles proudly at him before continuing.

"Anyways. All four of us forgot. From what I could gather from Sky's rambling, he used to be very close to us. The angry manager, on the other hand, would have had, at most, three or four run-ins with Sky. And yet: the manager remembered him."

"So..?" I ask, not exactly getting the point.

"So, I have a theory. Perhaps," Seto starts, pausing to think through his words, "perhaps, the memory erasure began with those who had the _most_ memories of Sky. And, since the Respawn Mechanism caught Sky relatively quickly after his death, it was stopped before it could finish the job - before it could get to people who didn't know Sky as well. Ty, from what I've heard of your past relationship with Sky, you probably would have had the most memories of him. You would have been the first to have your memories of him removed, and, therefore, you would take priority and end up with the least amount of memory left. Alesa, on the other hand - well, I don't know what her relation to Sky was. Regardless, we know she wasn't as close to him as you were, because Sky didn't even greet her when we walked in. Therefore, it makes sense that Alesa would've been a lower priority on the erasure list, and it follows, also, that she would be more likely to remember parts of her memories with Sky than you would."

"Yikes," Brice says, exhaling slowly. "That sounds complicated."

"It is, which is why it may take me a while to figure out how to fix it."

"Can I help?" Brice asks excitedly. He bounces up and down on the booth, and I notice that his hair roots have started growing out blonde again.

"Of course you can," Seto replies, smiling softly. Then his gaze moves to the angry manager, who is still frozen. Oh, crap, but the ice seems to be melting. "We should probably leave before he thaws," Seto says, voicing my thoughts.

"Good idea," Alesa chuckles nervously, sliding out of the booth after him. Brice and I hurry after them, and we're already outside and around the corner when we hear the voice of the angry manager screaming angrily. Seto casts a quick invisibility spell on us all, and the angry manager runs right past us. "Oh my Notch," Alesa giggles, looking at me, "how many times did you guys make that dude mad?"

I shake my head. "Probably far more than once."

"Yes, probably," Seto snorts, and Brice leans over laughing. "All right. We need to find Sky."

"Where do we even look?" I ask.

"Well, we used to be friends - would we still have his phone number?" asks Brice, and Seto shakes his head.

"He did say something about going to find Jason," Alesa mentions.

"Jason's on that date with Tyler," I point out.

Seto shrugs. "But Sky wouldn't know that."

"Well, then… Jason's house, I guess..?"

"Right. Or possibly the lab, since we all seem to hang out there a lot," Alesa offers. "But perhaps we should go get Jason and Tyler first, so we can tell them what's going on."

"Good idea," Seto nods, walking off towards the non-pizzeria that MunchingUniverse chose for their date. "Brice and I will talk to them. You and Ty can go find Sky."

"What do we do once we've found him..?" I ask nervously.

Seto raises an eyebrow. "You bring him back to the lab. Or, if he's already there, just wait for us to arrive."

"Oh! Yeah, okay, I knew that."

Alesa giggles, and Seto snorts while Brice smiles apologetically at me. "Okay, we'll see you two later," Seto says finally, turning away from us and grabbing Brice's hand to pull him along. Aw.

"All right!" Alesa laughs, copying Seto and grabbing my hand, though not in the romantic way. "Off we go!"

* * *

"Oh," I say quietly, watching as Sky curls up into a ball against Jason's front door.

"That's adorable," Alesa coos.

"Jasoooooon!" Sky wails, burying his head in his knees.

"That's obnoxious," I huff, crossing my arms, and Alesa shakes her head.

"Pfft. You don't have to pretend not to like him in front of me, you know."

"... Shut up, Alesa."

She laughs as I roll my eyes and push past her to approach Sky. "Hey, buddy, ah… you okay there..?" I ask uncomfortably.

"No," Sky whimpers as though his world is ending. "I've been forgotten by everyone I love, Jason has most-likely been kidnapped and/or killed by the squids, and the Respawn Machine erased the stock of emergency budder I hid behind Jason's house."

"I didn't catch half of that," I admit, dragging out the "I" at first. "But Jason is fine, he's just on a date with Tyler."

"Oh my Notch, really?"

"Really."

Sky uncurls from his tiny ball position and starts rolling around on the ground. "My life is compleeeeeete."

"Stop that, what- what are you doing?"

"Drowning in OTPs," he sobs, and I sigh.

"Come on, get up, you big toddler."

"I prefer the term 'fanboy,'" he sniffs.

"Oh my Jeb."

"You just indirectly insulted the fangirl/boy nation," Alesa whispers. "We are not _toddler!"_

"Oh, good, it got worse. Okay, come on, guys, we're going to the lab."

"Ah, the lab!" Sky says dreamily, jumping to his feet and walking next to me. "I have such good memories there!"

"Great. Come on, walk faster."

"Geez, Ty, chill," Alesa snorts, and Sky nods and nudges my shoulder lightly.

"You need to relax a little. D'ya wanna do a jump map tomorrow?" he asks, looking up at me hopefully.

"Uh, I'm not really into jump maps-"

Sky frowns. "What? But that's our thing, we do jump maps together! Once I tried to let Tyler join us, and you were super offended. Come on, _remember._

"Sorry, not ringing any bells. Anyways, maybe we can do some other kind of map after Seto figures out a plan."

"Better than nothing," he mumbles, and I try to ignore the twinge of guilt in my stomach.

"Here we are!" I announce to keep my mind off of Sky's frown. "The lab. Ta-da!"

"Ah, Ty!" Seto greets me from across the room. "Brilliant. Jason, Tyler, say 'hello' to Sky."

"Hello, Sky!" they say, only slightly out of sync. Ah, they'll get there someday.

"Hey, guys! Okay, okay, Jason! You remember me, right? Right, you've gotta!"

Jason shrugs, and I can feel Sky's hopes shattering. It's all I can do not to walk over and hug the poor guy. "Sorry, but, uh, no, I don't think I've ever met you before."

"Oh. Okay," Sky says blankly, and I give up and move closer to him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll- I'm sure we'll _all_ remember you eventually," I reassure him, and he smiles a little bit, which is enough for me.

"We may be able to _force_ our memories to return," Seto informs us, and Sky perks up a lot more. "Tyler here seems to know something about it."

The sorcerer turns to stare suspiciously at Tyler, who smiles nervously. "U-Uh, I just-"

"It's in the past," Sky says firmly, smiling at Tyler. "We're his friends. He's _our_ friend. Now maybe he can help us fix this mess I've gotten myself into."

Tyler grins, looking terribly relieved, and then he freezes for a moment and furrows his eyebrows. "Woah," he says after a few seconds. "Um- I think I just remembered some of my Sky memories-" His eyes widen. "Actually, I think I just remembered _all_ of my Sky memories!"

"Holy crap, yes!" Sky shrieks happily, running over to hug Tyler. "Yay, we're friends again!"

"We were already friends again," Tyler snorts, and Sky's smile gets even wider. I try not to feel jealous of how close those two are.

"Well," Seto starts. "That happened. Tyler, care to tell us how to fix all of this?"

"Of course! But it might take a bit of thinking."

"What doesn't?"

"Merome," Alesa offers helpfully, and I snort.

"If it's going to take a while," says Seto, "then I suppose we don't really need all of you here."

"We'll stay anyways," I tell him. "But it _is_ getting late…"

"You all can sleep in the room down the hallway. Tyler and I will stay up a bit later working on this."

"Sure. 'Night, Seto, Tyler." A bunch of people echo me, and Brice lands a peck on Seto's cheek, which leads to a blushing sorcerer and a couple of potion bottles shattering on the ground. Brice laughs as he runs off down the hallway, and Seto calls out a mumbled goodbye to the rest of us as he scrambles around trying to clean up the potions and get his magic under control.

"That was cute," I say simply, and Seto blushes again and drops the potions shards he was holding up with his magic.

"Notch dang it," he curses under his breath, and I laugh and follow Brice down the hallway.

* * *

"Jason thought I was Tyler and hugged the crap out of me when I woke up," I complain, yawning as I stumble into the room of the lab that Seto and Tyler are in. "Go make him sane again, Tyler."

Tyler glares at me and runs out of the room, and Seto chuckles, yawning along with me. "'d you sleep well?" he asks, looking up from one of his many desks.

"Did _you_ sleep _at all?"_ I ask, raising my eyebrows. He shrugs and yawns again.

"I'll cast an energy spell in a second. Maybe."

"Hmm," I reply, walking over to stand next to him. "What were you guys doing?"

"Researching the monster-mutants. Looking for reversals. So far, all I've gotten is that we need to do whatever it is we're doing within a week of Sky's respawn – after a week, well, that's when all of our unused backup memory files are permanently erased."

"Grand. Tyler helping at all?"

"Oh, yes. We _might_ be able to figure this out before the end of the week. _Might."_

"Sounds stressful."

" _Is_ stressful." Seto takes a deep breath and then chants, _"Renovo."_ Immediately, the slight bags under his eyes disappear, and he stands up a little straighter and smiles. "But we can handle it."

"Seto!" Sky yells, running down the hallway and almost tripping on his own feet. "Tyler is kissing Jason! It's _gross!"_

"Uh, only on the lips, right?"

"No, even worse – on the _forehead!_ It's _so cute,"_ Sky hisses angrily, and I roll my eyes.

"Hmm. Well, I'll get Tyler back out here in a few minutes, and then you, Jason, and the others can go play around in the city. We won't need any help for the next few hours," Seto explains, and Sky grins.

"We can go to the pizzeria!"

"No, we can't," I snort. "The manager chased us out yesterday."

Sky snickers quietly and then runs out of the room to get Jason and Alesa, and I laugh. "Well, there he goes - he'll be back soon. Um… See you later, Seto."

"Have fun, Ty."

Sky pulls Jason down the hallway and out the front door, and Alesa goes running after them both, yelling something about interrupting the gay, and my eyes go wide. "Uh, I'd better- yeah, okay, bye!" I shout, running out after them.

"Skyyyy!" Jason whines, digging the heels of his feet into the dirt outside Seto's house. "Why!?"

"There was too much gay happening!"

"You are literally the gayest person I know, except for Merome!"

"You barely know me!"

"Pssh!" Jason stops for a moment. "Okay, fine. But I do remember bits and pieces, okay- and you are very, _very_ gay."

"What!? I've dated, like, four entire girls!"

"Wooooow," Jason drawls, sticking his nose in the air. "Let's be real. You've been gay for cute little Ty over there ever since you popped out of the womb."

"Jason, oh my Notch," I breathe, covering my face with my hands. "W-Why would you say that."

Meanwhile, Alesa is literally rolling on the floor laughing. "Oh, oh, someone get me an inhaler, I can't breathe," she giggles, clutching her stomach. "S-So gay…"

I groan. "Everyone just shut up. Jason, don't you have to go feed Jeffrey and Dillon?"

Jason's eyes go wide, and he stops laughing. "Oh, no! They didn't get dinner last night, I've gotta go! See you later, guys!" he shouts, and then he speedy-gonzaleses towards his house.

Alesa laughs again, and then she stands up, takes a deep breath, and then laughs one more time. "Okay. I'm good! I'm good. Can we go see Ashley?"

"Sure. Why?"

"She's my best friend! And I want to know if she'll remember Sky, since she never spent all that much time with him."

"Oh, good idea. Well, come on, then! She's at your house?"

"Probably," Alesa replies, shrugging. "Either that, or she's hanging out with Annie and Tiffany."

"All right, we'll check your house first."

It only takes us about three minutes to show up on Ashley's doorstep, and then Alesa knocks on the door very, _very_ loudly to get her housemate's attention.

"Do you know a man named Sky?" Alesa asks immediately.

"Hmm, the name sounds familiar, but, no- oh, hi, Sky!" Ashley laughs, looking past me and Alesa to greet Sky, who grins.

"Hey! How are you?"

"Good, good. You?"

"Half the city forgot me, but you remembered, so that's cool!"

"Cool!"

Alesa shakes her head in disapproval. "We have the _weirdest_ conversations."

"Got that right," I huff, and my shoulders shake a bit with my laughter. "So, who's up for a trip to the park?"


	3. Jealous

_THIS ONE IS a TAD SHORTER THAN THE OTHERS OOPS_

 _ALSO NEXT CHAPTER WE GET A GUEST APPEARANCE FRO MA CERTAIN ANIMAL_

 _DONT EVEN QUESTION IT, GUYS XD_

 _ALSO SORRY FOR POSTING AT ELEVEN PM ON A WEDNESDAY BUT I GOT BORED XD ILL POST AGAIN THIS WEEKEND._

 _ALSO DID I TELL U GUYS THAT I GOT GREEN HAIRED_

 _BC IF I DIDNT_

 _WELL, I DID._

 ** _IM BASICALLY A MERMAID NOW_**

 _XDXDXD_

 _OKAY, SORRY XD_

 _EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE-AY-YOO-TIFUL RULERS!_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 3: Jealous**

 **Ty's POV**

My phone rings, and I pull it out of my pocket quickly. "Hey, what's up?" I ask.

"I think we _might_ have found a way to make everyone remember Sky. However, we will need to do it before the end of the week, or the last save of Sky's data in our memories will be lost," Seto says, speaking quickly. "Can you be here in twenty minutes?"

"Oh, yeah, of course! Ashley, Alesa, Sky, and I are just sitting around."

"Brilliant. How are you guys doing?"

"Pretty well. Sky and Alesa are playing… something." I smile slightly. "Sky seems happy."

"I was actually wondering if you guys were remembering anything, or if Sky was starting to, I don't know, disappear or something, but that's cute that his happiness is already at the top of your priorities list."

"Seto," I say, hating the way my face heats up.

"Right, sorry, I'm gone," he laughs through the phone. "See you in twenty."

"We've got twenty min-" I begin as I put my phone back in my pocket.

"I heard," Ashley laughs, rolling her eyes. "Turn your volume down, you dork. We can go in a second."

I tilt my head. "Why are we waiting?"

"Just… Look at them," she says quietly. "Look at _her."_ Ashley smiles a little bit as she watches Alesa run after Sky. "Notch, you don't realize how lucky you are," she whispers.

"Me?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows as I glance toward her.

"Yeah, you. She really, for real, fell in love with you after she started taking her medicine."

"That doesn't make me lucky," I reply, frowning. "I mean, she's one of my best friends, but… I don't like her like that."

"I do," Ashley sighs, her eyes glued to the far-away form of a laughing Alesa.

My eyes go wide. "You- You like Alesa?"

"Eh. More like 'love,'" Ashley laughs sadly. "Since we were young. She never seems to notice."

"Why- Wait, what? If you've been in love with her all this time, then- why did you want us 'bonding' back around the time we met Tyler?"

"She was so sad without you…"

"O-Oh. But you- she was in love with me. Why would you encourage me to hang out with her? What if I'd fallen in love, too, and we'd ended up dating?"

"Then she would've been happy," Ashley says, shrugging. "And that would've been good enough."

"I've never shipped anything harder," I mumble, studying Ashley's face as she laughs but continues to watch Alesa.

After a while, she turns her head to look at me. "What?"

"I just- I think you'd be good together."

"Thus the shipping."

"Well, yeah, but- I think you'd be good for _her._ "

Ashley shrugs helplessly and looks down at the ground.

"Why don't you tell her?" I ask.

She snorts. "What, and get my heart broken? Nah."

"Seems like your heart's already been broken."

"Yeah, but… But telling her would be worse. She'd feel bad for me. She'd move out."

"She wouldn't."

"She might."

"She might not. When did you get so serious?"

She laughs again. "I have a habit of putting up a huge wall a lot of the time? I hide behind this dumb, oblivious version of myself as though that'll protect me, and- and it doesn't. But I keep it up anyways, because that's how everyone knows me now."

"I think I like this you a little bit better."

"Alesa's seen both sides of me. She doesn't seem to like either one all that much."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," I snort. "She cares about you, at _least_ as a friend. And when you allowed her to move back in with you after the whole crazy Alesa deal – she remembers that. That really left an impact on her."

"You think so?"

"Obviously. I think you should tell her."

Ashley sighs and stands up. "Maybe someday."

"Maybe today?" I ask, standing up as well and walking with her toward Sky and Alesa.

"Definitely not today," she laughs.

"A _lesa!"_ Sky shouts, sounding terribly offended, and Ashley and I have to take a moment to laugh at the sight of Alesa pinning Sky to the ground. "No _fair,_ you totally cheated!"

"Pfft," Alesa says, making a very odd face. "Your _face_ totally cheated!"

"What!? How can you possibly be making less sense than _me!?_ _I'm_ supposed to be the confusing one!"

"And _I'm_ the _confused_ one," Ashley butts in, chuckling shamefully. "What just happened?"

"I won, that's what," Alesa replies, sticking her nose in the air. "Come on, see, Ashley, I pinned him for like twenty seconds! That's a win, right?"

"I dunno," Ashley shrugs, grinning goofily. "I don't really understand boxing."

"It's _wrestling,"_ Alesa groans.

"I thought those were the same thing?"

"Oh my _Notch,_ Ashley," Alesa groans even louder, and Ashley winks at me.

"Ty!" Sky shouts suddenly, pushing Alesa off of him and ignoring the "oof" sound she makes as she hits the ground and glares at him. "Ty, guess what!?"

"Um, what..?"

"Alesa remembered me!"

"Yeah!" Alesa shouts, jumping up and brushing herself off. "He was babbling-"

"I was not babbling!"

"-about budder, and then I kind of flashbacked to a budder sword against my neck back in the squid's base, and-"

"And now she remembers everything!" Sky finishes excitedly, bouncing up and down, and I laugh and shake my head.

"That's great, Sky. Now, uh, if you don't mind, Seto wanted us back at his lab within the next ten minutes."

"Oh, okay!" he says, walking next to me as I start toward the lab. "How come?"

"He thinks he might have found a way to make everyone remember you," I reply, trying to ignore the way his hand brushes up against mine, trying to ignore how Sky walks just a little _closer_ to me afterwards.

"Nice!" he yells excitedly, and I cringe and press my headphones against my ears. "Heh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Ashley, Alesa, you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, be patient!" Alesa huffs in response, so I roll my eyes and keep walking.

Once more, Sky's hand brushes against mine, and I flinch and take a step to the side. "U-Um, personal space, if you don't mind."

"Oh." He smiles, though it's clearly fake, and a terrible guilty feeling appears in the pit of my stomach. I made him sad. _I_ did that. Oh, Notch. Should I have let him stay so close? I mean, we've only known each other for – well, not even two days yet. I shouldn't be craving his touch like I so clearly am – oh, Notch, I did _not_ just think that. "Yeah. Sorry," Sky finishes, snapping me out of my internal freak out.

"It's fine," I squeak, and he tilts his head in adorable confusion.

"You okay..?"

"Uh-huh! Uh, we'd better hurry, we're gonna be late," I stammer, sprinting off towards Seto's lab and leaving Sky in the dust.

 **Sky's POV**

"Man, I don't think it gets more obvious than that," Alesa laughs, and I frown.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he's falling, Sky. You'll have him back in no time at all, regardless of whether or not this memory thing works."

"Falling- for _me?"_ I ask, my eyes going wide. "Oh, I don't think so. Did you hear any of that? I got too close, and he flipped out and _ran away._ I don't know where you're from, but here in Minecraftia, that's one of those things that implies someone _doesn't_ like you. Like, at all." I clear my throat after noticing how close I am to a voice break. Ty doesn't like me. Like, _at all._

"You're overthinking this."

"I am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are _too!"_

"All right, kids, calm down," Ashley snorts, rolling her eyes and walking past us to open the door to the lab. "Be on your best behavior."

"'Be on your best behavior,'" I mimic her childishly, and Alesa laughs while Ashley just smiles and rolls her eyes again.

The three of us walk toward the sound of voices – Seto, Tyler, Brice, and Ty, I think. When Ashley, Alesa, and I enter the room, those four are bustling around doing who knows what, casting spells and reaching to top shelves and mumbling about monsters or something.

"Hey!" I greet them, plopping down in a spinny chair and leaving Alesa to glare at me.

"Sky," Seto replies, nodding toward me in greeting. "Tyler, you _must_ remember the general location, at least."

"I-I'm sorry, I can't!" Tyler says frantically, pulling at his hair. "I'm so sorry, I- it was in the middle of nowhere, I just looked for the coordinates, but I can't remember them now, I- Oh, this is all my fault-"

"Woah, shh, it's all right," I say softly, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"We need to locate Dawn's old lab by the end of the week, or I seriously doubt you have any chance of being remembered," Seto explains.

"But Alesa remembered me!" I protest.

Seto stops to look up at me for a moment. "Oh? Well. Perhaps, if one's memories were not entirely erased, one could jog said memories by creating new ones of the same sort-"

"Oh my _Notch_ , Seto, dumb it down a little," Brice groans from across the room, and Seto frowns.

"I wasn't using _really_ big words-"

"Oh, _please_ do not start using 'really' big words," Brice begs with wide eyes, and Seto laughs.

"Sure. Anyways, we'll need to locate Dawn's lab, regardless. I doubt those who had their memories more thoroughly erased – for example, _Ty_ – will be able to remember on their own. Dawn may have had a sort of cure-all in case of a problem like ours."

"But I can't remember where it is," Tyler wails, and, wow, I've never seen him like this.

"Hey, it's all right. How'd you find out in the first place?" I ask, putting a hand on both of his shoulders and forcing him to look me in the eye.

"I- I- Dawn set up her email so that if it were unused for more than three months, it would send me an email with the lab coordinates in it."

"All right! Do you still have the email?"

"U-Um- no? But, but I saved the coordinates in a separate document on my computer!"

"Great, where's your computer?"

"Uh, back at my old house."

My smile drops. "In your old city?"

"Yeah."

"Care to take us on a city tour?" I ask, grinning again, and Tyler laughs.

"Haha, wow!" Alesa says loudly. "It sure is a good thing that none of us are, oh, I don't know, super jealous of each other for attracting a certain boy's attention! Haha, good thing we're not like that! Haha, _especially not Ty haha!"_

Ty stomps on Alesa's foot and then grins apologetically at me. "Sorry. I think she's sleep deprived. Um, you were saying something about a city..?"

 **Ty's POV**

"I was not _jealous!"_ I hiss at her as we leave the lab in search of Jason.

"Ha, _sure,"_ Alesa snorts, hanging back with me behind the rest of our group. "Because you were gripping that fermented spider eye so hard that your knuckles turned white and fluids from the eye splattered all over your shirt… _for the fun of it._ Obviously."

"S-Shut up, Alesa," I grumble, and she laughs all the way to Jason's house.


	4. Notch Deer

_Sorry, guys, but I am_ not _about to keep track of 12+ characters. XD Ssunkipz and Merome are gonna hafta sit most of this one out._

 _Also: This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There hasn't been anything similar to this event preceding it. However, I promised a special someone a special creature, and, honestly, when have I ever made sense to begin with? : 3_

 _HEEEEEEEERE WE GO, LETS GET STARTED! EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE-AY-YOO-TIFUL RULERS! (AND ALSO IM SORRY BUT DONT EXPECT A WEDNESDAY UPDATE THIS WEEK BC IM GOING TO A CAMP THING AND YEAH XD)_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 4: Notch Deer**

 **Seto's POV**

"We have, ah, a _bit_ of a problem," I chuckle nervously, looking at the map of Minecraftia back in the lab. Brice frowns as he looks over my shoulder. "Tyler's old city is a long, _long¸_ way away. We can't possibly travel there and back in five days' time."

"Could you teleport us?" Brice asks, putting a hand on my arm.

"No, it's a _very_ large distance. I could possibly teleport myself, but even then, I'd be running the risk of passing out upon arrival. Not to mention, I'd need Tyler with me to find his computer."

"Dang," Ty whispers.

"What about horses? We could ride horses," Jason suggests.

Alesa snorts, and Ashley giggles. "Sky banned horses from the city because one of them bad-mouthed budder in horse-language."

Everyone turns to look at Sky, and I roll my eyes. "Right. Okay, there has to be a way around this. Fast travel, fast travel…"

"Maybe Seth could teleport us!" Sky suggests, perking up a bit. "Using commands."

"Ah, good thought, but Seth is out doing who-knows-what in the middle of the wilderness. Some nature build," I shrug.

"Oh, dear Notch, help us," Tyler breathes, leaning against the wall.

Suddenly, something taps against one of the lab windows, and I run over to look outside. "What- Oh my dear Notch."

"Oh my _Notch deer,"_ Brice laughs, peeking over my shoulder again. "It's a literal Notch deer!"

"Hold on, what?" Alesa laughs, moving to look out the window.

"It's a deer," I explain, eyes glued to the strange creatures, "with a Notch beard. Also, it, ah, it seems to be trying to get our attention."

"Is it safe to approach them-" Ty begins, walking up to the window, and then he freezes as we watch Sky slowly approaching one of the Notch deer. "Oh my Jeb. Oh, Notch, are they going to hurt him- when did he even get outside!?"

"I think he'll be fine," I say quietly, watching as Sky laughs and pets one of the deer's heads.

 **"For the record, SkyDoesMinecraft,"** booms a loud voice, **"you are _not_ the budder god. _I_ am the god of all Minecraftia. However, because I agree with my satanic brother in that watching you fools is similar to watching a soap opera, and because I have grown foolishly attached to the lot of you, I have sent you this gift to assist you on your current adventure. Be gentle, for they are fragile creatures. When you no longer need them, they will fly home. Goodbye, and good luck!"**

"… Did Notch just compare our lives to soap operas?"

"Yes, I think so," I laugh, and Ty shakes his head disapprovingly before running outside to join Sky.

 **Ty's POV**

"He insulted my religion," Sky says emotionlessly, lying face up in the grass outside Seto's lab.

"You worship yourself? As- as the _budder_ god?"

"No! Well, yes- hmm. Not exactly."

"Right," I laugh, sitting down next to him in the grass. "I suppose we'll be going soon. Are the Notch deer nice?"

"Bleh," Sky mumbles, waving his hands in the air. "I'm not moving."

I move to straddle his waist, pinning both of his hands to the ground. "Yes, you are very correct," I giggle, grinning mischievously.

"Oh, you're trying to reverse-psychology me into breaking free and actually moving, aren't you? You sneaky little cute-cute."

My stomach flips, and I blush. "D-Did you just call me a _cute-cute?_ "

"Maybe," Sky replies, blushing just as badly as me. "Hey, Seto! Get Ty off of me!"

 _"Can't keep his hands to himself,"_ Alesa sings, and I blush even worse and scramble away from Sky.

"Oh my Notch," I mumble, looking down at my hands, and Sky laughs and holds out a hand to pull me to my feet.

"Just ignore her," he advises me, helping me up. He doesn't let go of my hand, and I have to put a _lot_ of willpower into forcing myself to step away on my own. And still, Sky's frown afterwards is almost enough to make me scoot closer yet again-

"Mount the Notch deer!" Ashley commands, claiming one of the creatures, and I sigh.

"So are there enough for us each to get our own, or-"

"Oh no," Alesa says loudly, pulling Brice off of Seto's deer and onto a different one before climbing back onto her own. "Looks like all the deer have been taken up! Sorry, Ty, you'll have to ride with Sky."

"Um, but there's an extra deer right there-"

"What a shame," Tyler sighs, shaking his head as he pushes Jason off their deer. "Looks like my boyfriend is wanting some personal space. He can bond with the extra deer while you and Sky get settled, Ty."

"That wasn't even subtle."

"It wasn't meant to be, love," Alesa replies teasingly, and I groan before clambering up onto Sky's deer's back.

"Woah," I mumble, almost losing my balance, and Sky reaches back, takes my arms, and wraps them around himself.

"Here you go," he says, facing frontwards again, and I blush into his back. "Now you won't fall off."

"Th-Thanks, Sky."

"No problem."

Seto coughs awkwardly, and the majority of the party laughs while I sit quietly, trying to contain my outrageous blush. "All right. Tyler, your old city is in which direction, exactly..?"

"Uh, through the Southern Gates."

"Not the Northern ones, Sky," says Alesa, and Sky laughs shamefully.

Seto shakes his head. "All right, time to go. Head north, we'll try to keep together. If you fall too far behind, just, ah, yell really loudly and we'll slow down a bit. But we do need to try to be quick – five days, guys. That's the deadline."

"Got it! Now, then," Brice says, glancing down at his deer. "Um, how exactly do you drive a _Notch deer?"_

Seto frowns. "Um…"

"Giddy up, little Notchy," Sky whispers to our deer, though the others don't seem to notice.

"Uh, Sky-" I say quietly.

"cRAP!" he yells as our Notch deer bolts into the sky. I squeeze my eyes shut and hold tightly to Sky as we zoom through the air.

"Oh, Jeb, oh, Notch," I mumble into his shirt, trying to even my breathing.

"Dude, Ty, look!" Sky shouts, and I open my eyes for a moment. Then he leans over to the right and starts _sliding off the freaking Notch dear,_ and I shriek and pull him back on.

"Sky, no! You're going to fall," I gasp out.

"Shh, Ty, calm down! Look, just trust me. Let go."

"W-What?"

"I won't let you fall, Ty. I _promise."_

Reluctantly, I loosen my hold on his shirt, and he smiles as he turns to face me. "Oh my Notch, Sky, d-don't _turn around,_ please don't fall-"

"Shh, it's all right," he laughs, looking me in the eyes. "I'm fine, see? We're fine. The Notch deer is enchanted, it won't let us fall."

"Really..?"

"Really!" he says, putting his hands in the air and standing up on the deer's back. I nearly faint, and the deer huffs in disapproval, but Sky doesn't fall.

I barely keep my eyes from rolling back into my head. "Don't _do_ that," I breathe, relaxing a little. "Sit down."

"All right, all right, I'm sitting," he says, rolling his eyes. "Since when are you scared of heights?"

"Um, since always?" I reply, raising an eyebrow.

"Wha- Oh, I remember! You _used_ to be afraid of heights, but then I pushed you into like ten billion jump maps to help you get over it! But since I never existed, you never got over your fear of heights."

"Sure. Just- stay sitting, okay?"

Sky nods and smiles at me, and then he leans over so he's nearly upside down (which is far worse than the standing) and yells down at the rest of our group to get their blocky butts up here.

When he swings back around to sit upright again, it only takes him a few seconds to notice my no-doubt very pale face and say softly, "No swingies, either? Sorry, Ty."

"Mhmm," I hum, trying to keep my lunch in my stomach.

"Well. Sky seems to have gotten the hang of it!" Seto calls as his deer flies up next to ours. "That was quick."

"What can I say? I'm good with animals."

I hum again.

"Ah, is Ty okay..?" Seto asks, looking warily at me. "I thought he was afraid of heights."

"I didn't!" Sky laughs. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him." Seto shakes his head and darts off, and the rest of the group flies after him.

"I-I can take care of myself," I tell Sky after a few moments.

"Well, duh," Sky snorts. "You've proven that time and time again. If anything, _I'm_ the one who needs to be taken care of. I just didn't want Seto to freak out on your behalf."

"Oh. Um… thanks," I say shyly, looking down and then regretting all of my life decisions.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, look up at me," Sky coos, lifting my chin up so that I'm looking into his eyes again. "You're all right."

"Will we be there soon?" I ask weakly.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure," Sky replies, though, if his slight frown is anything to go by, he's definitely lying.

"Okay," I whisper, closing my eyes.

"Make a quick right over here!" Tyler shouts, and our deer jerks to the right. I cry out momentarily, and the sound is mostly lost in the wind, but Sky certainly hears it. I swallow hard and lunge forward to wrap my arms around Sky.

"Are we going to fall?" I ask, voice trembling in a way that I absolutely hate. Dang it, Ty.

"No," Sky answers, hugging me back tightly. "I won't let us, I promise."

"Oh, dear," Seto shouts, and then his deer plummets toward the ground, and I squeak and bury my face in Sky's shirt.

"Oh, deer!" Alesa screams, and the wind rushes up around me and Sky.

"Sky," I whimper, grasping the fabric of his shirt.

"Listen up, weird godly deer thing, you have five seconds to land gracefully with zero turbulence," Sky growls, and I let out a nervous laugh. "If Ty cries out one more time, then, Notch help me, I'ma punch you in the face."

The wind around us seems to calm down a bit, and I take in a deep breath. "A-Are we okay?" I ask meekly.

"We're lovely!" Sky announces happily, jumping off the deer and then helping me down as well. "Well, that was fun."

"Urgh," Alesa groans, hanging upside down out of a tree. "How come yours didn't crash? Ours did." She wrinkles her nose and then yelps as she falls to the ground.

"Definitely not fair," Ashley huffs, running over to help Alesa up.

Sky shrugs. "Ours was very motivated. Good deer thing!" he says approvingly, jumping up and picking an apple out of the tree Alesa was stuck in. "Here you go, friend."

The deer chomps happily on the apple and then lies down and promptly falls asleep, and I laugh almost hysterically as I plop down on the ground beside it. "Can we maybe _not_ do that again?"

"Unfortunately, we'll _have_ to just as soon as the deer are rested. They got us an impressive distance in so little time – we're about half-way there. That's several tens of chunks in only five minutes," Seto explains.

"Wowza," Brice comments, staring wide-eyed at one of the Notch deer.

"Exactly," Seto laughs. " _Very_ impressive. Although I'm not sure how long it will take them to recharge. Notch did say they were fragile, and they clearly very much are, but… We don't have much information besides that."

"Maybe we should just set up camp for the night," Jason suggests, shrugging.

"Perhaps that would be a good idea," Seto replies, nodding. "All in favor?"

"Good luck getting me in the air tomorrow," I huff in a high-pitched voice, and Sky snorts.

"I'll find a way."

"Wow, I'm only a _little bit_ scared!"

"Cool, that might be a record for our overall friendship!"

"Oh my Notch, they are so perfect for each other," Alesa whispers, and I blush yet again. Gosh _dang_ it, Ty.

While I try to get over my heated face, Seto, Tyler, and Sky build a temporary base, and Brice, Ashley, and Alesa head off to hunt food. (Also, Seto requested a spider eye.) Meanwhile, Jason and I are picking apples to give to the resting Notch deer. Jason isn't about to start a conversation, seeing as he's probably deep into an internal debate about hunting and pig rights, and that leaves me to my own thoughts. Great.

Well, cue the onslaught of lovey-dovey Sky thoughts. Honestly, what is my problem? We literally _just_ met. I did not have _time_ to fall in love with this boy!

Um, not that I'm in love with him! I'm just- I've got a simple crush, that's all. I will _not_ fall in love. I will _not_ lose five diamond blocks to Alesa, the little matchmaker.

And yet – there are so many things about him worth falling in love with. His smile, his laugh- oh, Notch, his _laugh._ His over-excitement with everything, his curly brown hair that I'd really like to run my fingers through – and he's so _sweet_ , and the way he helped me when we were up in the air – that was so _nice,_ and I'm so _grateful,_ and- What's _not_ to love?

Oh, Notch. I am _not_ in love with him.

Two days, Ty! You've known him for _two days!_

"Ay, we got the spider eye!" Alesa calls, interrupting my terrible thought process, and I sigh with relief. "And some beef, too. No porkchops." Jason joins me in the relieved sighing. "You guys done with the base?"

"Just about-" Seto says, and then Sky yells "ta-da!" and places the last block on the roof of the simple house, and I smile.

The eight of us walk into the temp base and look around. It's not all that spacious, but it doesn't really need to be – it's only for tonight. "Anyone got any beds?" I ask, claiming a spot in the corner of the room.

"Well, I have eight bed _rolls-"_ Seto begins, but Alesa snatches one of the bedrolls away and tosses it out the door.

"Oh, no! I guess Ty will have to sleep with-"

"Oh, give the boys a rest," Seto snorts, and I smile gratefully while Sky makes exaggerated sounds of disappointment. "Alesa, go get your bedroll and bring it back inside."

"Notch dang it," she mutters, stomping outside, and Ashley laughs at her retreating form.

"All right, then," Seto continues. "I've got seven bedrolls, and Alesa has her own already picked out for herself. What an early bird. I suppose we can all just claim a spot on the floor to set up camp?"

"That'll do," Jason replies, taking one of the bedrolls and setting it up near the door. While the rest of the group roll out their beds, Alesa stomps back inside and plops down next to me.

"I guess I'll sleep next to you, you single dork."

"You're a single dork, too."

"Touché."

Ashley makes her bed next to Alesa's, and Seto forces Sky to bed half-way across the room, for my sake. After a series of 'goodnight's, Seto blows out the torch and magics us up a much dimmer orb of purple light just to ensure that no hostile mobs spawn on our faces.

Finally, we fade into sleep.

* * *

I bolt upright, gasping for air and waiting for the inevitable splat of flesh on earth-

Oh. It was- it was just a dream. I'm on the ground, not in the air. I'm not falling. I'm okay.

Okay.

Back to sleep, Ty.

I take a deep breath and slowly lie back down, settling into my bedroll again and trying to drift back to dreamland (and hopefully not nightmareland this time). But every time I close my eyes, I get a terrible falling sensation, like the ground has disappeared out from under me and now I'm just falling all the way through the earth, and even the _ground_ is too high up-

I sit up again and swallow hard. Maybe I could go for a midnight walk? That might calm me down a bit, but I'm just so _tired._ I _want_ to sleep, I just _can't._ I stand up slowly and carefully so as not to wake my sleeping friends, but then I notice Sky across the room, sleeping restlessly, turning over again and again in his sleep, and I wonder if maybe he'd like a bedroll partner? I bite my lip but eventually end up picking up my bedroll and tiptoeing toward Sky.

"U-Um- Sky?" I whisper, sitting down next to him.

His eyes flick open immediately – he was awake, as well. "What's up, Ty?" He frowns and sits up slightly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just… Uh… Could I maybe, um, sleep next to you?" I ask, cringing a little afterwards. Oh, Notch, Ty, why would you ask him that!? _Two days!_

"Nightmares?" he asks knowingly, patting the ground beside him. I smile gratefully and nod as I set down my bedroll. "Mm. What about?"

"Flying," I reply, shuddering as I lie down next to him, and he moves around so he's on his side, facing me. Then I correct myself. _"Falling."_

"Ah."

It's silent for a while.

"Hey, Sky?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for, um, holding me earlier today. With the, the flying deer thing."

"No problem, my _dear."_ I can barely make out his smirk in the darkness. "Get it? Because-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Goodnight, Ty."

"Goodnight, Sky."

 _"I love you,"_ I think in my head, and then I curse myself for losing to Alesa.


	5. Dark Magic

_fRCIKING LOVE THIS CHAPTER_

 _I_ _THINK THERE WILL BE AN EPISODE IN THE ONESHOT BOOK tHAT FOCUSES AROUND DARK MAGIC_

 _ALSO. FOR THE ASTERISK:_

 _*unless you have seen MrPeanutWaffles :3_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 5: Dark Magic**

 **Sky's POV**

Ty has this cute little almost-snore thing that he does when he's sleeping peacefully, and- you have not seen adorable until you have seen Ty, okay?*

I smile a little and try to ignore how creepy it is that I'm _watching him sleep._ Shh, it's fine! I'm _watching over him._ Keeping him safe. It's fine.

"Hey," someone whispers in my ear, and I jump a little to see Tyler crouching next to me. "You might wanna wake him up. If you don't, then the others will see you guys next to each other, and Ty will blush like crazy when he finally does wake up."

"Maybe I'd like to see that," I mumble, blushing myself.

Tyler snorts. "Well, Ty wouldn't be too pleased."

"Fine, fine, I'll get up, but I'm letting him sleep."

"Fair enough."

When Tyler isn't looking, I plant a soft kiss on Ty's forehead, and then Tyler and I slip outside silently. "When did you get up?" I ask as soon as we're out of earshot of the temporary base.

"A few hours ago."

"Holy crap, Tyler, have some chill."

"I'm an early riser," he laughs, shrugging. "I just thought I'd warn you when I heard the others starting to wake up."

"Thanks," I reply, and then I have to frown a little. "Ty doesn't seem very receptive of the whole Skylox deal at the moment."

Tyler snorts. "Are you kidding? He literally crawled into bed next to you last night."

I blush. "He- He was scared. Needed a friend."

"Specifically, needed you," Tyler clarifies. "Geez, how much more insecure can you get, Sky? He's in love with you, or, at the very least, he's _falling_ in love with you."

I chuckle. "Yeah, I don't think so, friend."

"Well, you're stupid," he says bluntly, and I laugh a little more loudly. "Wanna check on the Notch deer with me?"

Nodding, I follow him to where the Notch deer have huddled up into a group during the night. "Do you think they got too cold?" I ask, but Tyler just shrugs. I gently pet the Notch deer that Ty and I rode yesterday, and it grunts softly. "Hey, buddy. Good job yesterday. Can you do it again today?"

It sighs as though fed up with my crap, and I laugh. "Well, today will be a lot of fun. Do you think we should wake up the others?" I ask, turning to face Tyler again.

"I guess so." He looks up at the sun, shielding his eyes slightly. "It's about… eight? Yeah, we should wake them up."

"WAKEY WAKEY, A SERIOUS LACK OF EGGS AND BAKEY," I shout, leaning into the house.

Seto groans and mumbles, " _Typicam American prandium._ Five more minutes, Sky." Eggs and bacon appear floating in the air in front of me, and I laugh in delight as I quickly consume them.

"Five more minutes, it is!" I giggle, walking around the room and shaking awake everyone but Seto. When I get to Ty, I sit down next to him and shake him extra lightly, so as not to scare him. "Hey, Ty, time to get up," I say softly.

"No," he mutters, squeezing his eyes shut more tightly.

"HEY, TY, TIME TO GET UP," I try again.

Ty jumps almost a full meter into the air, and he curses the world quietly when he hits the ground. "W-Why… would you do that…"

I snort. "Why _not?"_

"Human decency," Ty hisses, sitting up and rubbing his butt.

"Oh, Ty, did you hurt your bum? Maybe Sky can help you straighten out the _kinks_ ," Tyler giggles.

"Oh my Notch. That hardly even made sense, I think you said that solely for the pun," Ty groans in annoyance.

"Yeah," Alesa agrees, but then she grins. "Anyways, they wouldn't _straighten_ things out, they would _gayen_ things out."

Ty pinches the bridge of his nose and then sighs and stands up. At first, he almost loses his balance, and I rush to catch him before he can fall.

"He fell for you," Jason whisper-shouts, and I sigh.

"Ooookay, let's leave the lovebirds alone and get a move on," Seto says, finally getting up off his bedroll. "Good Notch, you three are relentless."

"They're so cute!" Ashley squeals.

"Four. You _four_ are relentless," Seto sighs. Brice clamps his hand over his mouth, and Seto sighs one more time before walking out the door. "Hurry up, we've got to get going!"

"Are we packing up the bedrolls?" I ask.

"Yeah, but _only_ the bedrolls. The rest can be left behind," Seto shouts from outside.

"Sure thing!" I yell back as I start gathering up the bedrolls in my hands.

Ty stops me once I'm struggling to hold six of the bedrolls at once. "Idiot, at least put them in your backpack. Here, let me help." Tyler wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I roll my eyes. Ty is just being a good friend, geez!

As we walk, I lean in toward Ty. "Are you going to be okay today, on the Notch deer?" I ask quietly.

"Ohhh," Ty moans, and I blush a little. Yikes, innocent thoughts, Sky. "I don't know. Isn't there a different way to get to Tyler's old city?"

"I don't think so. Not one that Seto will accept, anyways. But it'll be okay, I'll keep you safe! I'll entertain you this time."

He raises an eyebrow. "How?"

"I'll tell you stories about the adventures we had together before I was almost erased! Maybe you'll even start to remember me." I grin excitedly and bite my lip.

"All right," Ty laughs, shaking his head, and I scream happily, causing Ty to jump and drop his bed rolls. "Dear Notch, Sky."

"Sorry," I say sheepishly, and Ty just smiles.

"All aboard the Notch deer!" Seto calls, and I dump my bedrolls and Ty's into his backpack before he can mount his deer. Seto nods at me and then looks over at the rest of us expectantly, waiting for us to get ready. "Four days left, not counting today."

"Only three days," Ty groans, and I give him the 'what the crap' look.

"You okay there, buddy?"

"Y-Yeah!" he stammers, smiling awkwardly, and I coo internally at how adorable this boy is.

"Will you be okay on the deer thingy?"

"O-Oh."

"Hmm. Come on, Ty, all aboard! I'll help you up."

"The problem is not getting up there," he says quietly.

"It's _staying_ up there, and, even worse – getting down. I know. Don't worry, it'll be okay," I assure him, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward our Notch deer. "Up you go, love."

"U-Um-" he squeaks, eyes wide.

"Oh! Oh, I- I didn't- oh, Notch, I didn't mean, like- it's not like I'm- not like we're- oh, disco Jeb sheep," I stutter, blushing insanely. What a slip up! Notch, I haven't called him that in _years._

"O-Okay," Ty replies in a very high-pitched voice, and then he climbs onto the deer, refusing to make eye contact with me. Ohhhh, I goofed. "Um, are you- do you want to be in front again?"

"Will it make you feel better?"

"Uh-huh." Oh my Jeb, he's so cute, I want to kiss him so badly, how did I go so many years without kissing him? How did I manage to let him go the first time? _Why_ did I let him go? The city wouldn't have cared. Dawn and Alesa were _way_ worse than Ty would've been, and, honestly, _no one would've cared_ that we were two boys instead of a boy and a girl! The city is half gay, no joke, we are the gayest city on the map! There is _so_ much gay going on on a daily basis! _No one would have minded,_ Sky, _why did you give him up?_

"Um, Sky?"

I snap out of my self-disparaging internal rant and force a smile. "Sorry. Um, yeah, I'll sit in front."

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly, seemingly having gotten over my 'love' nickname from earlier.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm, I'm fine."

"Are… you sure?"

"Of course! Seto, are you ready to fly?"

"I don't know, are we?" Seto calls, glancing around at everyone.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Jason yells.

"We are not a show, and we are not using a road!" Tyler yells after him.

"It is a figure of speech!" Brice yells, and I internally hats-off to him for making it three whole yells.

"Giddy up, little buddy!" I shout, tugging on our deer's ears, and it grunts again and darts up into the air. Ty yelps and shoots his arms out around me so as not to fall off (despite the fact that he literally _cannot_ fall off), and I smile a little since no one can see my face right now. "All right?" I call.

"A-All right," Ty answers meekly, and I frown. "So, those adventures you were talking about..?"

"Oh, right!" I laugh, switching into story mode. "We've had so, so many…"

* * *

"Five seconds!" I screech, and our Notch deer skids to a stop, scaring the crap out of Ty, and then slowly lowers itself to the ground. "Hmm, that was a close one," I say skeptically as I help Ty off the deer, and I swear it rolls its eyes at me.

"O-Okay," Ty laughs nervously. "That, that happened just then."

"It did, indeed," I huff.

"Really? A _gain!?"_ Alesa shouts, and I lean over laughing.

"Well," says Seto as he teleports out of the tree he fell into, "we're here, at least."

"But at what cost?" Tyler whimpers, lying spread-eagled on the grass.

"Oh, get up," Jason scoffs, holding out a hand for him to grab. "Where's your old house?" He frowns. "Wait, where are you living _now?_ In _our_ city?"

"Uh…" Tyler shrugs. "Everywhere, sort of? Like, I stay at the Team Crafted house sometimes, since you guys aren't there to stop me, and I've stayed at Sky's a few times-"

"Um, _no,"_ Jason says, rolling his eyes. "You can move in with me."

Tyler's eyes go wide. "I- Really? But- What if you get tired of me?"

Jason rolls his eyes again. "I've been missing you ever since you moved away five years ago, Tyler. I will _not_ be getting tired of you anytime soon."

"Um- Well- Thanks," Tyler says quietly, smiling slightly and looking down.

"Aw, how cute," I coo, and Jason rolls his eyes at me.

"Ready to go?" he asks.

"Yessir!" I reply, and Tyler nods and walks toward the gates of this new city. "Where exactly are we?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Literally on the other side of the map," Seto answers.

"Yeah," Tyler says, nodding again. "I moved here a while ago when Dawn decided I wasn't, um, safe in the city? She didn't tell me why. She just thought I would be better off here, and… I mean, she was my only remaining family, so I did it. She stayed in your city. I guess she… already, she was planning to take over, and she didn't want me tangled up in that. Especially didn't want me getting attached to the citizens – Jason – but it was too late to stop that, anyways."

"So what's it like here?" Jason asks.

"Eh. If you know how to get around, it's okay-ish, I guess. Not as fun as Sky's city, that's for sure," he laughs. "No national budder days or anything. It's pretty boring, pretty standard – some old guy is the mayor, but he kind of just hangs out in the capitol building."

"Oh, yeah, I know him!" I shout. "Sometimes the City Council makes me talk to the leaders of the other cities so we don't, like, go to war or something, and I remember the guy from this city. He's pretty chill."

"He's _too_ chill," Tyler snorts. "There's a lot of crime in this city."

"'Safe,' my butt," Jason mutters.

Tyler leads us down several different streets – a few times, he stops and turns around after hearing footsteps other than our own. "Is it really that bad?" Ty asks, eyes wide.

"Absolutely," Tyler answers, shaking his head. "Don't try to underestimate the people in this city. It's all right, though, as long as you know which streets to avoid. Here, we're going this way."

"Head up," Ty tells me, nudging my shoulder. "The trick to surviving places like this is to keep your head up and walk with purpose, like you know exactly what you're doing and exactly where you're going. Then no one messes with you."

"You'd think I'd know that," I huff, trying to look confident.

Ty shrugs. "For the most part, our city is the type that's more likely to protect a scared-looking citizen than attack them. We're cool like that."

I glow proudly, because, hey, I made it that way! Well, I had help, of course – I can't possibly take credit for that amazing city of ours. But I started it, set it into motion, and that's something to be proud of, I think.

"Right around this corner," Tyler tells us, and then we're standing in front of a tall apartment building with an absolute crap-ton of windows.

"Are those all really necessary?" I ask.

"Not at all. Okay, um, well- crap. I haven't exactly been _living_ here lately..," Tyler says, biting his lip.

"Oh dear," Seto mumbles, his eyes glued to the man stomping out of the apartment. "Uh, hello, sir."

The man sneers at Seto, and Brice raises an eyebrow in the universal 'oh-you-did-not-just-do-that' expression. "I don't know who you are. Get out."

"I'm not exactly _in-"_ Seto protests, taking on the air of someone slightly offended.

"Off my property. You're not paying for one of my places, you're not breathing any of my air," growls the man, and then he spins to face Tyler. _"You._ Where did you run off to?"

Tyler rolls his eyes. "I left you a note, Jody."

The man's face goes an angry red. "It's _Jode!"_

"Sure. Did you find my note?"

"It must've gotten lost when I was cleaning out your old apartment," Jode says with a smirk.

Tyler's face pales. "You cleaned out my apartment!? What the Nether, our contract said I still had this place for another month."

"Our contract said you had to live here and pay rent."

"I _do_ live here, and I _have_ paid rent," Tyler hisses, gritting his teeth. "I was on _vacation._ And, anyways, you were still getting the automated payments from my bank account. So what's the friggin' deal?"

Jode shrugs. "Had someone interested in renting your place."

 _"I_ was renting my place!" Tyler groans, crossing his arms. "Fine, whatever, where'd you move all my stuff?"

"Sold it."

"Are you kidding me!? _Fine,_ who'd you sell it to?"

"Richie."

"Well thank Notch," Tyler sighs, seeming to calm down a bit. "In that case, bye. Don't be expecting any more rent payments from me."

"Aw, sad to see you go, Ty."

"Don't call me that." Tyler lets out another sigh and turns around, grabbing Jason's hand and pulling him away. "Come on, guys."

"Not even gonna introduce me!?" the man shouts after us as we speed-walk away, and Tyler blows air out through his nose slowly.

"Hate that guy so much," he mutters after we're out of earshot.

"He seems like a total jerkwad," Alesa huffs. "Why'd you put up with him for so long?"

"Dawn wanted me staying in one of his places," Tyler explains. "She said he was basically family, except that he wasn't and Dawn has never lied more. I don't know why she wanted me there with him – probably just so he could stop me if I ever tried to go back to Sky's city."

"Well, he didn't do a very good job when you left a few months ago."

"Yeah. He's an idiot."

Tyler leads us down a few darker, scarier streets, and I cringe when I realize the sun's already beginning to go down. "Are we going to see that Richie guy?" Jason asks, and Tyler nods.

"Mhmm. Richie's weird, but he's all right. He's got more money than he knows what to do with, so he just buys stuff and then hoards it. Just because he can, I guess. Luckily, that means he probably hasn't touched my computer at all other than to stuff it in one of his hoarding houses."

A few more backstreets later, Tyler stops us, and we stare into a stereotypically dark alley where a stereotypically scary figure leans against a wall. "Tylah!" the figure greets, grinning and stepping out of the shadows slightly. The man is fairly old with his white hair and wrinkled skin, so he doesn't come off as very threatening, save for the creepy entrance and the creepier trench coat. "Me an' the boys 'ave missed ya. Where ya been?"

"Away," Tyler replies vaguely. "I was wondering if you happen to have in your possession a grey laptop with a Neko Atsume sticker on the lid?"

"Oh my Jeb," I giggle quietly, and Ty silently elbows me.

"Ah, straight t' da point," the man – Richie, I guess – grumbles. "Fine, fine. Yeh, I got it."

"Well, can I _have_ it?" Tyler asks, crossing his arms. "It's mine, and I'd like it back."

"I can't jus' give it to ya."

"So what are you selling for these days?"

"I don't sell inymore, boy. Jus' buy."

"You always sell for _some_ thing. A few months ago, it was rotten flesh." Tyler rolls his eyes. "So what is it _now?"_

"'Ey, I upped m' standards since da las' time you saw me, boy. I don't t'ink you can afford t' get yer laptop back."

"I can."

"Oh?" Richie chuckles, letting out a hacking cough. "Interduce me to yer friend, there." He points a snaggled finger toward Seto, who suddenly looks very vulnerable with his floppy brown hair falling into his eyes and his robe hiding his slender frame and making him look more fragile than he is.

"That's Seto," Tyler replies slowly, skeptically. "Why do you ask?"

"I wan' 'im."

Brice splutters. "Well, that's just too bad, you can't have him!"

"You can 'ave yer laptop back, an' I'll take da boy."

"No," Tyler says firmly. "Seto will stay with us. We'll trade you something _reasonable._ "

"Take 'im, boys," Richie growls, and five figures dressed in black step out of the most shadowy shadows and start moving towards Seto.

To Richie and his minion things, it must look as though Seto is shaking in fear. But I know him well enough to recognize that he's not afraid, he's _amused_ – he's laughing and trying his darndest to hide it. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Tyler warns Richie, because he knows Seto fairly well by this point, too. But Richie just cackles, and his minions continue forward.

"Well," Seto chuckles, shaking his head and beginning to levitate about a meter into the air, "he _did_ warn you."

Two of the minions freeze, assessing the situation as Seto rises higher and higher and his hands are illuminated by the glowing purple orbs now hovering in his control. The other three baddies transition into a sprint, ending in an attempt to jump up to reach Seto. "Ah ah ah," Seto says, grinning. _"Globi flammarum!"_

A ball of purple flame shoots down at the three over-confident minions, but right before it hits, one of the two smarter minions yells out, _"praesidium!"_ and an orange, almost-transparent shield appears in front of the three. Seto's fireball spell bounces off, though Seto dodges the ricochet easily.

"Oh," Seto says, raising an eyebrow. "I see. Well, this ought to be interesting. _Formidulosus spicis!"_ Purple spikes spring out of the ground beneath the two smarter minions, but they call out some kind of spell in sync, and orange and blue magic pounds the spikes back into the ground before they can do any harm. Then the two minions yell something that sounds intimidating, so I make a move to hit one of them over the head with my trusty budder sword.

Unfortunately, the three non-smart minions apparently have some form of magic as well, and one of them casts a quick spell that sends me and the rest of my friends (save for Seto) flying back against the wall. Another of the three casts a spell that binds us to the wall, and, as much as we struggle, we can't break free.

"Now," Seto says placatingly, "let's be civil. _Proteget eos."_ A just-barely-opaque shield of purple magic forms around me and my friends, and Seto smiles his 'calm-down-you-violent-five-year-olds' smile. "You must have _some_ sort of conscience, surely. In an effort to reach this conscience of yours, I must inform you that, since the majority of my party is from another city, and since each city has a Respawn Mechanism of its own to support its citizens, then, should you attack us and manage to actually kill us, we will _not_ respawn, and you gentleman will forever be held under the burden of a murderer's guilt."

"I'm a gentle- _woman,"_ one of the smarter minions hisses, and then all the minions fire at Seto at once.

"I see," Seto sighs, dodging their blows. "In that case, I don't apologize if my friends and I mercilessly loot the remains of your bodies."

Seto fires spell after spell at the minions, but they seem to be holding their own _fairly_ well. Seto manages to knock two of the minions unconscious, but then one of the others finally finds a vantage point. _"Tacite!"_ she yells, and the next time Seto opens his mouth to shout a spell, no sound comes out. His eyes widen, and he uses a hand spell to wave away an oncoming blast, but it only barely works – before falling away, the attacking magic hovers a little, as though it's about to break through.

Seto darts around in the air while waving his hands about, trying to unmute himself, I assume. But nothing is happening – he's getting _nowhere,_ and the battle is starting to get worrying. Seto has three fairly competent sorcerers attacking him, and he's only got a fraction of his power available to him. _"Exhaurire!"_ one of the baddies yells. A huge, wispy orb of orange magic launches at Seto and hits him dead-on, and Brice screams for him since he can't seem to scream for himself.

"No, Seto! _Seto!"_ Brice cries, and the magic shield that was protecting us fades away.

"Mourn him," the "gentle"-woman says with a smirk, and we're released from the hold of their magic.

"Seto," Brice whimpers, kneeling down next to him. "Seto, wake up."

"Is 'e dead?" Richie asks, frowning. "Can't use 'im if 'e's dead."

One of the minions shrugs. "If he is, you can just pick out one of the others. They haven't exactly got a great defense at the moment."

"W-Why- Seto-" Brice wipes his eyes.

"That one ain't gonna mind much," one of the other minions comments, pointing at Brice.

Brice sniffles quietly and then lifts his head up, just barely. He raises a shaking hand and holds it out towards the minions as though to ask for a hand in getting up. Richie smirks, and Brice bites his lip.

 _"D-Duratis,"_ Brice mumbles, and Richie and his remaining minions freeze over.

"Holy crap," Ty whispers, and then he runs over to sit by Brice. "Holy _crap_."

"Brice, oh my Jeb," I breathe, sinking down next to Ty as the rest of our group slowly moves toward us. "I- Oh, geez."

"Is he okay?" Brice asks meekly, tears running down his face. "I- Seto never taught me any healing spells."

"Um," Alesa says simply, feeling for a pulse.

"Thank Jeb," Jason says, sighing in relief. "He's got a pulse, at least. Fast one, but, yeah- it's fine."

Brice lets out a relieved sob.

"Well," Tyler says breathlessly. "Um. Well."

"That happened," Ashley laughs. "Geez, Brice, you saved our butts."

Brice smiles weakly, and then we hear a quiet groan and look down to see Seto propping himself up on one elbow. "H-Hey." Seto swallows, closes his eyes, and then opens them again. "I swear I didn't freeze those guys before I went down."

"Brice did it!" I say excitedly, bouncing in place a little, and Seto grins.

"Really?" he asks, looking up at Brice, who blushes a _lot_ before nodding shyly. "Agh, I'm so proud of you! That's amazing, Brice."

Brice blushes even more, and Seto sits up properly in order to caress Brice's face gently. Ashley screams silently and almost passes out, and Seto just laughs quietly and then leans in and kisses Brice. And when Seto finally ends the kiss and pulls back, he smiles warmly at Brice and repeats, "I'm very proud of you."

"Never seen more 'heart' in my life," Brice breathes, and Seto grins.

 _"Calefacto-"_ gasps a voice from behind us, and Seto jumps to his feet, faces the voice, and pulls Brice behind him. We all turn to watch with wide eyes as the ice around the minions almost immediately thaws – one of the minions had melted enough to be able to mutter a thawing spell. Great.

"You," Richie hisses at Brice, who whimpers slightly and holds on tightly to Seto's robe. "Punish 'im."

 _"Iudicium scaenis unus!"_ a baddie chants, and dark blue particles of magic dart through the air until they make contact with Brice's skin. The poor boy yelps and sinks to his knees, clenching his fists around the bottom of Seto's robe, and Seto freezes.

"S-Seto," Brice whimpers, and Seto doesn't move.

"Scared?" Richie asks, smirking at the still-frozen Seto.

"You should be," I answer for him, trying to hide the smile that twitches at my lips. And then it begins.

 _"Et visitabo super vos! Dignus es aeternae damnationis!"_ Seto scream-chants, rising into the air slowly and raising his hands as though summoning the devil. Purple magic, darker than anything I've ever seen Seto use, fires forth from his hands and entraps the minions. _"Quod Notch vivi condemnabit te impendere apud inferos mille Nether! Filii tui certamen omne onus sub antiquo maledicto! Ut prætereuntes non recessit ab aspectu tuo ferant!"_ Seto pauses to growl, and he looks truly terrifying as his dark purple magic tightens around the minions and squeezes, lifting them high into the air. The baddies scream in agony, and Seto's shoulders shake. _"Cetera extrema fortuna habeas aeternum Et nunc adhuc? In laqueum et in magica, non ad salutem! Tua te carorum hoc passus propter iniquitates! Ut te pigeat opem!"_ Seto's magic begins to harden around the minions, leaving them trapped in a painful purple clay-like substance that's hardened into the rough shape of a heart. _"Ut vos sentire dolorem, quam ter decies misit super amica mea!"_

The minions go silent.

"I-It didn't hurt _that_ much," Brice mumbles, tugging on Seto's robe to bring him back down to earth.

"Oh," Seto says quietly, sounding distracted. "Sorry."

"U-Um… Are you okay?"

"Yes. One moment."

A few seconds later, Richie faints.

"All right, come on, what was all that about?" Ty asks with wide eyes. "You obliterated them."

"Ah. I, ah, my apologies. The spell that gentleman had begun to cast was easily identifiable. That spell is completed in three stages, the first being a short, painful shock. The second fills the victim with a paralyzing fear. And the third leaves the victim to suffer the pain of eternal damnation."

"O-Oh," Brice squeaks. "Uh, thanks for not- not letting them do that."

"Of course, love."

"Holy- geez," I laugh, sitting down on the ground. "That was _awesome!"_

Seto chuckles, and Tyler rolls his eyes and then frowns. "Why would they cast such a big spell on Brice when all the poor guy did was cast a little ice spell?"

"The terrible thing is, the spell is easy," Seto replies, shrugging. "The even more terrible thing is that the spell is _fun._ It gives the caster a rush, a high. It's like taking a drug – it's easy to get addicted to the thrill. Most dark magic casters tend to get addicted to spells like this one."

"Wait, just then- were you casting _dark_ magic?" Alesa asks with wide eyes.

"I don't do it often."

"Do me a favor and don't get addicted to it," Brice laughs breathily, and Seto smiles.

"I won't."

"Oh, Notch," a raspy voice groans, and we turn to look at Richie as he slowly gets to his feet and tries to stagger away.

"Ah, I think not," Seto snorts, reaching out a hand. Richie glides toward us with a petrified expression, and Seto shakes his head. "Idiot. Where's the laptop?"

"Ha, haha, it's, it's in m' red ware'ouse! N-Not far from 'ere! Heh, I won't even charge ya da f-full cos'! You can take it for as li'l a' two pieces o' rotten flesh!"

"Thanks for the offer. We'll take it for free instead."

"Ha, o-okay!"

"Well," Tyler laughs, "what a lovely transaction."


	6. Explosions, Yay!

_SO GUYS_

 _FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO dONT KNOW_

 _I STARTED A NEW SETOSOLACE FIC BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF SETO BEING ADDICTED TO DARK MAGIC_

 _IT'S CALLED "ADDICT," YOU CAN FIND IT ON MY PROFILE PAGE_

 _IM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT AND IVE ARLEAD WRITTEN AND POSTED THREE CHAPTERS OOPS XD_

 _ANYWAYS, CHECK IT OUT IF YOU WANT!_

 _EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE=AY-YOO-TI-FUL RULERS!_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 6: Explosions, Yay!**

 **Alesa's POV**

"Notch, do you ever organize this place?" I shout, rifling through a pile of junk.

"N-No, miss!"

"Oh, so now it's 'miss,'" I grumble, looking back down at my work.

"Found it!" Ty yells, his head popping up to be visible above the wall of crap. "Can we leave now?"

"Absolutely!" Tyler replies, sounding relieved. Ashley and I weave through the junk maze until we make our way back into the sunlight. Oh, nice, we spent the rest of the night swimming around in that junkyard. "Hey, thanks for the help, Richie," Tyler says, smirking, and Richie smiles nervously.

"S-Sure t'ing, boy! Pleasure doin' bidness wit' ya!" With one last nervous smile, Richie turns and scampers away, glancing back only once to ensure that Seto isn't about to rain down all the Nether on top of him.

We laugh as Tyler leads us away to a park that's located nearby. Once there, Seto and Brice settle down on a bench, and Jason and Tyler sit down on the ground just a foot or two away from Sky and Ty. To avoid breaking up any of the ships, I sit across from them all with Ashley.

It's a shame my own ship couldn't work out. I mean – yeah. Sky and Ty are, they're good together. They're _meant_ to be together, and that's pretty obvious. But… I wonder what could've been, you know? Ty's one of my best friends. I'm happy for him.

But I can't say I'm not a little jealous of Sky.

"You'll find someone," Ashley whispers, nudging my shoulder gently, and I blush when I realize I've been staring at Ty for a few minutes now while the others talk about the laptop. "Don't worry."

"I just-" I swallow hard before whispering back. "Could I have maybe gotten him, in the end? If I hadn't gone about it the way I did?"

"Not a chance," Ashley says, and I frown, but then she continues. "Ty is very, very gay. I've never seen him look twice at a girl."

I laugh a little, but then I frown again and bite my lip. "But if he weren't…"

"It'd be hard not to fall in love with someone like you," Ashley says softly, and I blush.

"Thanks."

"Mhmm."

"I'm glad you're starting to show _this_ you – you know, the smart, serious, actual advice-giving you – to the Team," I admit, smiling again. "I've missed this you."

"Hmm," she hums, giving me a half smile. "We'd better tune in."

"Oh, right," I mumble, deciding to actually participate in the group's main conversation.

"Here we go," Tyler says, leaning forward and typing his password. He clicks around a bit. "Oh, sorry, the document's protected, too." He types something else in and then spins the computer around so Seto can see the screen. "Can you get us there?"

"Nine-eight-four-two, sixty-seven," Seto mutters, likely committing the coordinates to memory. "I can get us there. Well- Well. I can get us there, but I'll likely collapse upon arrival. Perhaps we should return to the Notch deer."

Ty laughs nervously, and Sky shushes him and scoots closer. Notch, they're adorable.

"Well, off we go to find the Notch deer!" Jason exclaims, standing up and then holding out a hand for Tyler to grab. And then, with one final squeak of resignation from Ty, we dash off toward the city gates.

* * *

"What the crap," Sky deadpans when we get to the gates. The Notch deer are nowhere to be seen, and that leaves us without a ride.

"They must have thought they were no longer needed," Seto says, frowning.

"Isn't Notch, like, omniscient or something?" Sky huffs. "He probably should've checked to make sure we were done with those weird deer thingies before he took them back!"

"Well, don't make him mad, we'll still be able to get to the lab," Seto says, rolling his eyes. "Everyone up for a teleport?"

Brice bites his lip. "Are you sure? What if we need you after you pass out but then you won't wake up and we can't even do what we came to do? Plus then- what if you _died!?_ Is Dawn's lab close enough to our city for our respawn mechanism to work on us?"

"No," Seto says bluntly, and Brice laughs nervously. Seto smiles. "But we'll be fine."

"Oookay," Brice chuckles. "You're insane."

"Verifiably," Seto replies. "All right, we all need to be connected for this. Let's do a cheesy 'go team' thingy."

I laugh as I put my hand out on top of Seto's. All my other friends pile their hands on, and then Seto grins and says. "We're yelling 'Suddenly, Pineapples!' two seconds after I cast the spell." Everyone laughs. "Okay. One… Two… _Ianuae Magicae!"_

 **Sky's POV**

"sUDDENLY, PINEAPPLES!" I screech, falling to the ground in laughter as the world bends around us. "Frick, Seto, you're the best."

"I try," he gasps, falling to his knees on the floor of what must be Dawn's lab.

"Seto!" Brice worries, dropping down next to him. "You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, I-I- just- need a minute."

Seto passes out, and Brice takes in a deep breath.

"Okay, then," he says. "All right! He'll be fine, right?"

"He'll be fine," Ty promises, poking around the lab. "It looks like we're just in a sealed room..?"

"No shelves, no doors, no windows..," Jason comments, furrowing his eyebrows as he slides his hand along the wall.

"Are we in the right place?" Alesa asks, turning to Tyler.

"Yeah," he replies, nodding firmly. "This is her lab. I think we have to enter a passcode somewhere?"

 _"Where?"_ Ashley snorts, glancing around at the white-tile walls, floor, and ceiling.

Tyler narrows his eyes as he scans the room. "There was something out of place last time…"

"Oh dear," I shout, stepping on an off-white tile on the floor. Scary-looking lasers pop out of the floor around me and trap me in a burny-lighty cage of burny-lights. "I seem to have found the thing," I mumble.

"Sky, oh Notch," Ty breathes, running over to my laser cage. "How did you even-"

"I dunno!" I say, throwing up my hands in a defensive manner, but then I yelp and back up against the wall when one of my fingers accidentally brushes through one of the lasers.

"Sky, oh, crap," Ty mutters, glancing around my small cage. "Notch, are the lasers closing in on you!?"

"Uh…" I chuckle nervously. "Apparently."

"Tyler, how do we get him out?" Ty asks frantically, spinning around to face Tyler.

"Say hi!" Tyler shouts at me. Seriously!?

"Hello!" I say nervously, and the lasers stop creeping in closer. I let out a relieved breath. "Lovely."

 _"Greetings. Your relation to Dawn?"_ asks an electronic female voice.

I swallow hard and glance at Tyler, but he just shrugs. "Um, ex-boyfriend?" I try. Ty frowns.

"You were dating Dawn?" he whispers.

"Later," I reply, listening for the electronic voice again.

 _"Ex-boyfriend. Entry recognized. Entry partially accepted. Title?"_

"Uh…" This won't end well. "SkyTheKidRS."

The voice stalls for a moment. _"Entry not correctly categorized."_

Oh. I guess, when she died, I was technically sort of still her boyfriend. "Um, re-categorize, boyfriend."

 _"... Boyfriend. SkyTheKidRS. Entry recognized. Entry accepted. Temporary access granted. Do not touch anything, moron. I don't even know why you're here. I hope for your sake you are on an errand for Dawn."_

"Love you, too, Dawn," I grumble as the lasers disappear and several doors appear along the walls.

"Sounds like a healthy relationship to me," Ty says sarcastically, crossing his arms. "All right, come on, stick by me. You heard her – you're not allowed to touch anything."

"Aw, come on-"

"Last time you touched something, you got laser-beamed," he says, rolling his eyes and taking my hand in his. "Are you hurt?"

"Not badly," I reply. "Just- just a tiny burn."

"Good."

"Do you need him to kiss it better-" one of my obnoxious friends – who even cares who at this point? – begins, but Ty throws his headphones at them.

"Shut up. Which door should we check first?"

"Um… this one?" I ask, trying not to laugh.

"Do you, uh, want your headphones back..?" Alesa asks awkwardly.

"No. Do me a favor and throw them at yourself next time you say something obnoxious."

"Savage," she whispers, and Ty facepalms.

Finally, I let out the laugh I've been holding back, and then I grab Ty's hand and drag him into one of the rooms. "Look at all this crap! This is cool," I comment, looking around the room. The walls are made of the same white tile, but there are grey shelves on almost every wall, and the shelves are stacked with odd-looking potions. "Oh my Jeb, is that the head of a Notch deer!?" I ask, staring at a deer head mounted on the wall.

"Um," Jason squeaks.

"Heh, my cousin was into some weird stuff," Tyler mumbles, looking down. "Sorry."

"I dated a murderer," I whisper, staring up at the mounted head in horror.

"I thought we were already clear on that," Ashley says, and I sigh. Alesa smacks her lightly on the back of the head.

"Annnyways, this is the wrong room," Tyler tells us, pulling me and Ty back out into the main room. "The room I found the pixel potion thing in was filled with grey boxes and police tape."

"Well," says Ty, walking into another room. "Ah, here we go. 'Too Much Power: DON'T EVER USE!' Great. Hey, didn't you say you found this potion in Dawn's _basement?"_

"I, um, may have lied a little bit," Tyler admits sheepishly, and Ty groans.

"Fine, whatever. What are we looking for? I mean, the potion itself is gone, you took that a while ago."

"I don't know," Tyler replies, shrugging, and I huff. "Some kind of cure? Something labelled 'Cure All for That Really Powerful Mess of a Potion.'"

"Right, we need Seto."

"He's kind of still unconscious!" Brice calls from the main room.

"Try a spell!"

"I told you, Seto never taught me any healing spells!"

"Okay, hold on," I mutter, pulling out my phone and bringing up google. I put the crappy phone mic up to my mouth and say, "Translate English to Latin."

My phone dings twice. _"What would you like to translate?"_

"Uh… _Heal._ "

 _"-Heal- translates to –Sano-."_

"Didja hear that!?" I yell, and Brice yells at me to shut up.

After trying the spell several times, Brice moans in frustration.

"Maybe he doesn't need healing, maybe he just needs energizing," Alesa suggests, shrugging.

"Translate 'Energy.'"

 _"-Energy- translates to -Navitas-."_

So Brice tries _that_ a few (hundred) times, and, after a few minutes, Seto actually does wake up. "H-H-Holy _crap,"_ Seto breathes, shooting straight up into the air. "W-Why do I feel like I'm literally b-bursting with energy."

"Um, I tried a… _few_ energy spells on you," Brice chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh my Notch, Brice, _they take time,_ n-never cast anything other than a healing spell more than once," Seto scolds him, jittering in the air. "B-But thank you. Why'd you need me up so quickly?"

"We don't really know what we're looking for," I laugh, throwing my hands up as I glance around the room. "Any ideas?"

"You made Brice cast a random spell without _any_ specific training – _just_ so you could ask me if I had 'any ideas.'"

"Yes, we did."

"Okay. Well, no, I don't."

"Dang it, Seto."

"Mm. Have you looked for a large, obvious indication of any sort?"

"Um, like what?"

"Sky," Ty sighs, staring across the room at a door clearly labelled, in large, blocky, neon letters, "Antidotes and Fix-Its."

"Ah," I reply, walking over to open the door. "Yeah, okay, here it is."

"Really?" Alesa asks, running over to join me. "You found it?"

"Yeah, I think so," I snort. "It's in this glass case, like the center of a museum exhibit."

"Do _not_ touch it!" Seto commands, teleporting into the room in order to get ahead of me. "We need to be smart about this."

"Oh dear," I say, having slinked around Seto in order to bash open the glass case.

 _"Submit password in order to halt or delay lab self-destruct. Without password input, lab will self-destruct in one minutes."_

"Wow, many grammar, such wow," I scoff at the voice.

"Sky!" hisses Ty, looking at me with a 'what-the-crap' face.

"Sky, grab the potions!" Seto commands, readying a low-power spell in his hands. "Everyone else, grab anything that looks really cool!"

"Aw, how come everyone else gets the fun job?" I whine, grabbing the potions.

 _"Without password input, lab will self-destruct in thirty seconds."_

"Because you're an idiot!" Seto replies. "Everyone circle around me!" We all gather around Seto, and Ty's hand somehow finds its way into mine.

 _"Without password input, lab will self-destruct in fifteen seconds."_

 _"Invictus!"_ Seto shouts, and a purple tint covers us all. "My apologies if this still hurts a bit!"

 _"Lab will self-destruct in five seconds._

 _"Four._

 _"Three._

 _"Two._

 _"One."_

There's silence for a few moments. All of the doors slam shut on their own, and I laugh. "Oh, is that all it was? Well, that wasn't so bad-"

The lab blows up.


	7. I'll Miss You

_NEINER NEINER NEINER NOOOOOO_

 _YOULL MISS ME AND ILL MISS YOUUUU_

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 7: I'll Miss You**

 **Ty's POV**

"I'll kill you," I say, frowning a little. Lottle.

"Well, that isn't very nice."

"Shut up, moron."

 _"Rude."_

"You scared me!"

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry."

"Sky, I thought you were _dead!"_ I choke out, biting my lip. "I thought- what the crap, man!?"

"Sorry, I'm sorry! I won't do it again, Ty, I- I didn't think you'd fall for it," Sky chuckles, pulling me into a hug, and I push him away. He faked being dead! He pretended he _died_! That's- That wasn't _funny!_

"No, don't touch me."

"Aw, Ty, come on, Seto cast the invincibility spell on us _right_ before the explosion-"

"So!? You could've been, I dunno, immune or something!"

"Ty, I was _clearly_ breathing."

"I couldn't see that from twenty blocks away!"

"I could've been _cloud watching._ "

"Yeah, _or_ you could've been _dead!"_

"I don't know whether to reprimand one of you, or just sit back and roll my eyes," Seto comments, shaking his head as he walks up next to us.

"Reprimand him!" I beg, trying to keep myself from tearing up. "That was _not_ cool!" Four days, good _Notch,_ only _four days_ and I'm already-

"I'm _sorry_ , Ty, I really didn't mean to scare you! I thought, _if you even noticed,_ it'd be funny. I could jump up and scare you like a zombie, and- yeah, it was stupid, I'm… sorry," Sky mumbles, looking down at his feet, and I bite my lip harder and furrow my eyebrows and think about how much I _hate_ feeling so helpless against death, against love-

No. No, no, _no,_ this is _no_ fun, I am _not_ going to deal with this. Sky can get somebody _else_ to fall in love with him, because I don't wanna- I don't wanna deal with the pain of losing him when, inevitably, the idiot gets himself killed. I don't wanna- I don't-

I am _not_ in love with Sky. I will _never_ be in love with Sky.

It isn't worth it. It isn't worth the pain of seeing him go.

And, anyways, I'm not a friggin' puppet! I'm not gonna _gravitate_ to this random dude just because my friends think I should. I'm not a _doll,_ like, 'Oh, let me just shove Ken's face into the other Ken's face!' Good Notch.

… Yikes, that was a tad hypocritical. But, uh. _#Ashlesa. #Setosolace. #Merome4Dayz._

Off-topic.

"It's fine! Sorry, it's fine," I mumble, turning away. "Seto, how are we gonna get home?"

"Ty," Sky says quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder, and I shake it off and step closer to Seto.

Frowning, Seto hesitates for a moment. "Ah- Hmm. Ah, sorry, let's see…"

"I'll go out on a limb and guess that you can't teleport us," I sigh.

"Heh, yeah. I could pretend that the extra energy from Brice could help me carry it through, but- no. It's too far a distance."

"Could you teleport yourself?"

"The whole passing out thing, remember? Could take me ages to wake up, without Brice there to help out. Plus, I'd need Sky with me. I think he has to drink the finished potion after I mix it."

"Dang. Then… what can we do?"

"Oh, Notch, give us back those deer thingies!" Alesa begs, falling to her knees and lifting her hands to the sky.

"Oh, Notch, just teleport us instead!" I say, copying her tone and then sending her a glare.

"Dude, come on, we'll take anything at this point," Jason says, shrugging slightly. "We have- what is it, three days, now?"

"Closer to two," Seto sighs, frowning at the slowly setting sun. "I hate Minecraft days."

"And Minecraft days hate you," Sky jokes, and I force myself to keep a straight face. It wasn't even funny, ugh.

"Be serious," I huff. "Did anyone grab anything teleport-y from the lab?"

"Um…" They all search through our backpacks for anything we might have managed to shove in there before the explosion. Jason sighs. "Nothing, sorry."

"Nada," Tyler says, shaking his head dejectedly.

"All I have are some weird, glowy rocks," Ashley laughs.

"Woah, they change color," Sky says in awe, and I glare at him.

"I love it," Ashley whispers.

"It's beautiful," Sky whispers back.

"But not as beautiful as Ty?" Ashley asks, still whispering, and I stiffen.

"But not as beautiful as Ty," Sky whisper-confirms, and I stomp my foot.

"Can we just be _serious_ for a moment?" I ask, nearly shouting. Sky's eyes go wide. "Look, we have _two days_ to get this potion ready, and- can we just get going, please?"

"Y-Yeah," Sky stutters, and I try hard to ignore the guilty feeling in my stomach. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Ah…" Seto glances between me and Sky a few times, and then he shakes his head and moves over to stand by Ashley. "These 'glowy rocks' might actually be a bit helpful."

"How?" Tyler asks, still glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. Ugh.

"Well..," Seto begins, and I'll admit to tuning out a bit after that. Alesa inches closer to me until she's almost on top of me, and I roll my eyes and push her a tiny bit away.

"What's up with you?" she asks, trying not to laugh.

"Nothing's up with me."

" _Something's_ up with you, and I think it might be a _stick_ up your-"

"So, basically, it'll help us teleport!" Seto shouts, glaring at Alesa, who grins apologetically.

"But seriously, what's up?" Alesa asks me quietly after Seto has continued on explaining how to use the glowy rocks.

"Nothing, really."

"You can't be _that_ mad about Sky faking his death. What happened to 'I'm not in love with him'?"

"I realized exactly how true it is."

Alesa reels back a bit. "Harsh."

"Hmph."

"Sky loves you."

"Shut up."

"But he does! And you're hurting him by being all weird."

"It's been five minutes," I huff, rolling my eyes.

"It's felt like longer to him."

"And how would you know?"

"He won't stop staring at you."

"Seems to me he won't stop staring at those glowing rocks."

"Glowy."

"Glowing."

 _"Glowy._ Anyways, that's his current cover up. Watch him carefully, he'll be glancing at you out of the corner of his eye."

I sigh and do as told, stalkerishly watching Sky. After only a few seconds, Sky glances toward me and then blushes tremendously when seeing I'm already returning his gaze. "Oh. So he is."

"Little bit."

"So what? That doesn't change how _I_ feel."

"It doesn't have to. The way you _feel_ doesn't need to be changed." Alesa rolls her eyes. "The way you _act,_ on the other hand…"

"I'm not in love with him, Alesa, and I'm not gonna act like I'm in love with him, either," I say stubbornly.

"Ty-"

"Can we just drop it?"

"… Fine."

"Good."

"Great!"

"Greater!"

"I'd say great _est,_ but nothing is as great as Skylox!"

"A _lesa!"_ I huff, stomping my foot.

"Got it?" Seto asks us all, and I smile guiltily as I finally tune in. "You missed the whole explanation, didn't you?" he asks me, and he sighs when I nod. "Fine. Just hold the Quick Travel Stone in your hand, make a fist around it, and then close your eyes and picture the lab in your mind. Easy enough?"

"Easy enough," I reply, nodding again and holding out my hand to get a stone from Seto. The sorcerer passes a stone to Alesa as well, and then we both look to Seto for a 'go.'

"Well?" Alesa asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Screw it, I'm going," I say, closing my fist around the stone. "Later!"

The stone burns the palm of my hand, and I yelp as I reflexively let go. "What the crap?" I ask, holding my right hand with my left. But when I glance up, I realize I can't see any of my friends, nor can I see any of my surroundings. I'm surrounded by, it seems, nothing but a heavy grey mist. "Guys? Guys! Oh, Notch."

I try to take deep breaths as the mist gets even thicker around me. I can barely see my hand when I hold it right in front of my face. "G-Guys?" I call one more time, stumbling over something and falling to what must be the ground. "Holy crap," I mutter, slowly getting to my feet. When I look up again, there's a shadowy form in front of me, and it looks suspiciously like a spider jockey. I cry out in pain as, quite predictably, I get shot in the arm by an arrow. Grand.

Completely weaponless, I spin around and dart off into the fog. "Guys!" I yell again, though by now I'm pretty sure that they're nowhere near me. Another shadow approaches me, and I curse and take a step back.

"Ty, take my hand!" shouts an achingly familiar voice, and I reach out blindly and end up holding to Sky's hand for dear life as he sprints through the fog with me barely keeping up behind him.

"Where are we!?" I ask, almost tripping on a rock that Sky manages to completely dodge.

"No clue!" he laughs, pulling me up a slight incline. "I heard you freak out as you teleported, so instead of teleporting to the lab, I teleported to you."

"Nice. Well, thanks," I reply, shrugging and trying to hide exactly how grateful I am. Good Notch, that could've ended terribly. Imagine if the stones didn't work like that, and trying to teleport to a specific person rather than a specific place just sent you to, like, another dimension or some crap? Sky could've been seriously hurt, but, from the sound of it, he didn't think twice before running after me.

"Whelp, I'm out of sprint," Sky pants, sinking down to the ground and leaning against something solid. "You?"

"B-Been out for a while now," I pant-laugh, sitting down and scooting closer to Sky.

"Oh, geez, I'm so sorry, Ty!" he replies immediately, sounding frantically apologetic. Since he can't exactly see me very well at the moment, he squeezes my hand as a wordless apology.

"Hey, it's all right. I was keeping up _fairly_ well, and you dragging me along helped a lot," I giggle, and then I curse myself for being weird. Notch dang it, Ty.

"Heh," he chuckles nervously, and I roll my eyes. "Sorry about that. Also, sorry about- look, Ty, I'm really super sorry about faking my death back there, like, I didn't think it was such a big deal-"

"It _is_ a big deal. I care about you. But it's fine, I- I forgive you, it's fine."

"Ahh, thank you!" he squeals, leaning in and hugging me tightly, and I choke on my surprised laughter.

"This doesn't mean I'm in love with you!" I add sternly once he pulls away, and, though I can't see his facial expressions, I can hear the slight catch of his breath before he answers.

"Right! O-Obviously," he laughs. "Okay, uh- I-I guess we should… try to contact the others, somehow?"

Once again, I try my best to ignore the twinge of guilt I feel when I hear his tiny stutter. Notch, I hurt him. Oh, I didn't mean to! I mean, I- well- _It's been four days-_

"Sky, Ty! Can you hear me?" asks Seto's voice, and Sky seems to perk up a bit.

"Yeah, where are you?" he asks, standing up and letting go of my hand, and I frown, confident that he can't see it, at the loss of contact.

"Not there, that's for sure. Notch, you two are idiots. Describe your surroundings," Seto demands.

"Uh, fog. A _lot_ of fog," I answer, glancing around and still seeing nothing but the grey mist.

"Lovely," Seto's voice sighs in reply, and I laugh nervously.

"M-My bad."

"Not your bad, actually; the stone malfunctioned, it was very old. However, _Sky_ was _ever_ so helpful in wasting his own stone going after you. Now we've got two of you to rescue."

"Sorry," Sky whispers, and I get the feeling Seto didn't hear it. I fight the urge to hug the poor boy as his outline seems to shrink in on itself.

"Regardless, this shouldn't be too difficult. If I'm correct, the pair of you is currently trapped in a half-way point between here and the lab. Not halfway as in halfway there, but halfway as in Ty's stone stopped him mid-teleport. This is like, a- a _limbo_ of sorts. You should be able to get yourselves out by focusing on something that grounds you to our dimension, our world."

My thoughts fly to Sky, and then I glance in his direction and cringe. "And it has to be someone- er, some _thing_ that's still in our world?" I ask.

I can hear Alesa's laughter in the background as Seto snorts and says, "Yes."

Great. Okay, I can do this, uh- Alesa!

Why does my bond with Alesa seem so much weaker than my bond with Sky? _It's only been four days._

Come on, Alesa's my best friend. She and Jason are, anyways. I can think of both of them! This'll be easy.

Alesa, Alesa, gotta get home to see Alesa! Jason and I can go play a minigame together, just a normal outing, maybe Alesa can come along! Maybe we can have a group Fable II session. We could play with that Sky character-

"Ack!" I shout as the ground seems to disappear from beneath my feet. Sky calls out after me, but his voice quickly fades. "Oof." I wince and push myself off the ground. "Hey," I greet the others, and Seto rolls his eyes and then closes them.

"Sky! Ty is through, now we just need you," Seto says semi-patiently.

We wait a few moments.

"Why can't we hear him..?" Tyler asks, tilting his head.

Seto frowns. "I don't know. The signal's fine, I can still hear zombies growling in the background. Sky just… isn't answering."

"Sky, come on, you can't just not answer us!" Alesa huffs.

"I swear to Notch, if you die, I'll kill you," Tyler threatens.

"You need to get back here, safely," Jason adds, biting his lip.

"Sky..?" Seto asks, beginning to look very worried.

"Is he okay?" Brice asks, tapping on Seto's shoulder.

Swallowing hard, Seto shrugs. "Ah… Maybe?"

No. No, he's not dead, he can't- _Four days!_ I've known him for _four days,_ I can't lose him so soon! No, no, this cannot be happening, this is _not_ happening, Sky will be _fine._

A single phrase floats around in my head, the sound of my own voice whispering, _"I'll miss you,"_ like it's the last thing that will ever be worth saying.

"Someone give me their stone, I'm going back," I gasp out, half-running forward.

 **Sky's POV**

"Ack!"

"Ty!" I yell, lurching forward to where he used to be sitting, but he's not there anymore. He's gone. He made it.

Here I am, unable to think of a single person who holds me to our world nearly as much as Ty does, and yet Ty can replace me in less than a minute.

You know what? I don't need Ty! I am not entirely dependent on Ty for everything. I can think of someone or something _else_ to keep me tied to our world, it doesn't have to be Ty. I have other friends, too, you know.

"Sky! Ty is through, now we just need you," Seto's voice says. Shut up, Seto, I'm thinking.

"Why can't we hear him..?" Tyler asks.

"I don't know. The signal's fine, I can still hear zombies growling in the background. Sky just… isn't answering."

"Sky, come on, you can't just not answer us!" Alesa huffs, and my eyes fly open. Ah, see, Alesa! She's a pretty good friend of mine. She even remembers me! Alesa, Alesa, Alesa. Why isn't it working!?

"I swear to Notch, if you die, I'll kill you," Tyler demands, and I almost smack my forehead. Tyler, of course! I'm not _all_ that close to him, but I've made a lot of good memories with that boy, and he's very nice when he's not trying to, like, kill everyone or whatever. Tyler! Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler with the nerdy glasses. Okay, this isn't working.

"You need to get back here, safely," Jason says, and, oh, Jason! Jason is my best friend, apart from _that other guy._ Surely I can use Jason, Jason with the blue space helmet, Jason with the Jeffrey obsession, Jason with the curly brown hair.

"Sky..?" Seto asks. Seto? Come on, _Seto!_ It's _Seto_ , I've been through so much with him, why doesn't he count!? Come on, Seto's great!

"Is he okay?" Brice. Brice with his cute little Seto-crush and his amazing artisty things, Brice. Notch _dang_ it!

"Ah… Maybe?" Come _on,_ anyone but him! I can do this!

"Someone give me their stone, I'm going back."

 _Ty._

"Dang," I whisper as I hit the ground.

"Sky, oh my Jeb," Ty breathes, falling down next to me and then wrapping his arms around me. He hugs me tightly, and I take a moment just to breath in his scent.

"You can't just not answer like that!" Alesa says, almost angrily, and I wince.

"Heh, sorry, I was… thinking."

"About someone to ground you to our world?" Seto asks, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't think that would take much thought, after Ty got back."

I blush tremendously and try to turn around to hide my face, but Ty just holds me tighter, refusing to let go, and so I bury my face in his shirt instead.

"Does this mean you're onboard the ship train?" I hear Alesa whisper to Seto, who snorts.

"I was _always_ onboard the ship train. The boys need to get there on their own, though, for the most part."

"We can hear you," I mumble into Ty's shirt, and Seto taps his ear but doesn't make any effort to actually make me repeat myself.

"All right, Ty, come on, he's fine," Alesa sighs, trying to pull him up, but Ty just shakes his head and squeezes me tightly for a moment.

"Ty, it's okay," I say quietly, backing out of his shirt a little. "I'm okay."

"You almost weren't," Ty whispers, and it's barely audible. He buries his face in my hair, and I sigh and finally return his hug.

"I'm okay, I promise."

"… Promise?"

"Promise."

"O-Okay," he mumbles, slowly letting go and standing up. He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and then smiles weakly as he holds out a hand to help me to my feet. Oh, Notch, my totally-not-codependence pride was definitely not worth this. I'm so sorry, Ty.

"Meanwhile, Ty's got an arrow sticking out of his arm," Tyler comments, and my eyes widen.

I step closer to Ty again, and he swallows hard. Heh. "Seto, heal him!"

"Will do," Seto replies, casting a quick spell, and Ty's injury disappears, along with the arrow.

"You can't die, either," I say stubbornly, looking into Ty's eyes. He averts his eyes almost immediately.

"Yeah, well."

"Hey, so, I didn't wanna mention it while Ty and Sky were having their little moment," Jason begins, "but I remembered almost _all_ of my Sky memories right after he teleported to Ty."

"Yay!" I shout in a childish voice, running over to Jason and dramatically kissing his cheek. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Watch it, buddy," Tyler growls, and I laugh and take an overly cautious step back from Jason, who rolls his eyes.

"I'm, uh, glad you remembered," I giggle, and Jason huffs out a laugh.

"Yeah, I am, too."

"So here's the thing: You can't deny you have any feelings for him and then still get super jealous like this when he gets close to someone else," Alesa says, and I spin around.

"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing," she replies sweetly, looking away from Ty, and I roll my eyes. They weren't seriously just implying that I had a crush on Jason or something, were they? Oh my Notch.

"Wow, so convincing."

"It's actually really nothing, seriously."

I shrug and turn back around. "Well, some of you are already remembering, but others still haven't, so… Seto?"

He sighs. "Right. Well, since we haven't enough stones for all of us, we'll have to figure out another way home."

"Can't you and Sky, at least, teleport to the lab?" Ty asks, tilting his head.

Seto chuckles and scratches the back of his neck. "Truthfully, I'm a bit worried to leave the rest of you alone out here, where the Respawn Mechanism doesn't reach."

"Fair enough," Ty sighs. "So what are our other options?"

"Ah…" Seto shrugs helplessly. "We walk."

"We _run,"_ Jason corrects him.

"Regardless, there's no way we can get back home in only three-" He glances up at the night sky. "Make that _two_ days' time."

"Dang," I whisper. "Ha. Guess it's sort of a lost cause, then. We might as well take our time getting back home."

"Wait, Seto, you said dark magic spells were easier than neutral or light spells?" Ty asks, blatantly ignoring me.

"Ah, yes..?"

"Could you teleport us home using _dark_ magic?"

"Woah, no!" Brice butts in, making an "x" in the air with his hands. "Seto's not casting any more dark magic spells."

"Dark magic doesn't have a teleportation spell, unfortunately," Seto informs us, ignoring Brice the same way Ty is ignoring me. "However, I _could_ cast a very strong, very easy dark magic summon that would provide us with, ah, _moderately_ tame Nether mobs to ride."

"That sounds dangerous," Tyler says cautiously.

"But would it get us home in time?" Ty asks.

Seto thinks for a moment. "… Yes. I believe it would."

"Do it."

"No!" Brice protests stubbornly. "That isn't good for you, Seto! You can't keep casting dark magic."

"Sure I can."

" _Seto!"_

"I think he'll be fine," Jason says hesitantly.

"He's more level-headed than any of us," Alesa points out.

"Worth a shot," Ashley says, shrugging.

"All right, let's do it," Seto agrees. "You may wish to back up a little."

"Seto," Brice begs quietly, biting his lip.

"Don't worry! I'm in control."

"If you say so…"

 _"Donum nobis habitans apud inferos auras. Nec potest in itinere copiis adesse. Insontem et noxia sint nobis inimici nostri. Ut nos adepto domum cito."_

Dark purple mist wisps around Seto, and when he opens his eyes, the irises are a murky purple rather than their usual brown. The wind picks up, blowing Seto's robe and hair around him.

 _"Summone committitur!"_

A loud roaring sound fills the sudden silence, and then wispy purple figures begin to materialize in front of us. _"Celeritate!"_ Seto shouts.

The purple mist dissipates, and we are left with four screaming ghasts.

"Aha!" Seto laughs happily, spinning around in the air. "Notch, that's fun!"

"Seto," Brice calls, tugging on the sorcerer's robe. "Seto, stop, it's _not_ fun!"

"Hmm?" Seto asks, glancing down at him. He immediately drops back down to the ground. "Right, of course. My apologies. I've got control."

"And _we've_ got ghasts!" I laugh, pushing aside my slight worry for Seto's mental health. "Holy crap, this is cool."

"And they won't hurt us?" Ty asks cautiously, raising an eyebrow.

"Hopefully, no," Seto responds.

"'Hopefully.' Great," Ty mutters, but he reaches out a hand to pet the nearest ghast anyways. It actually _purrs_ a little at his touch, but I can't exactly blame it. _I'd_ purr, too.

"Well. Into the air again!" Seto exclaims, and Ty groans.

"Right. Forgot about that part."

"Hey, you'll be fine! I'll protect you!" I say excitedly. Maybe I can tell him more of our adventure stories, and then he'll remember! I mean, it didn't exactly work last time, but it might work _this_ time!

"Uh, actually, could I maybe ride with Alesa?" Ty asks, avoiding eye contact with me and instead looking over at Ashley as though for approval. Ashley just shrugs and points at Alesa.

"Yeah, why not?" Alesa responds, though she's frowning at Ty. Dang it, Alesa, you're supposed to help me out, here!

"I guess I'll go with Ashley, then," I say quietly, and Alesa smiles apologetically at me.

Oh, Notch, what if that's the reason he keeps trying to avoid me? Maybe he remembers _us,_ just a little, in the back of his mind, but he's fallen in love with Alesa without me around, and so now he's battling those two emotions and Alesa is _winning_ and Tylesa is going to happen and no, no, no, what if they're actually already secretly dating and Alesa is just trying to distract us with Skylox shipping oh no oh no oh _no_ what if they _kiss_ in front of me later, I don't think I can _handle_ that, oh dear oh Notch oh no-

"Don't worry, Sky. Despite the tentacle things, ghasts are not squidkin," Ashley tells me, and I frown and furrow my eyebrows. What?

"I-"

"Shut up and go with it. You looked like you were having a mental breakdown, and Ty was starting to give you weird looks," she hisses in my ear, and then she smiles and pulls me up onto our ghast. "We'll talk about it when they can't hear."

"Uh-"

"So, how do you drive these things?" Ashley asks in her super-stereotypically-blonde voice.

"Just lean in the direction you want to go," Seto instructs us all. "Which, in our case, is _that_ way."

"Cool!" I reply, immediately leaning forward and then quickly leaning back when the ghast starts to shoot off. "Holy crap, can we turn the sensitivity down on the controls?"

"No. To go up, lean back and pull on the front of the ghast's head. To go down, lean forward and push the front of the head downwards a tad. Be gentle. If you're too rough, they'll turn on you," Seto warns us. _"So be gentle."_

"Sure thing!" I shout, leaning back and pulling the ghast's head back with me. It screams and darts higher into the air, and I laugh joyously. "Oh my Notch, this is so cool!"

"Yeah, and we're so high up that the others can't hear us now," Ashley comments, and I sigh. Fun's over. "What were you freaking out about earlier?"

"Nothing, just… Nothing, really," I reply hesitantly, looking down at the ground far below. Ah. I love being in positions where I _could_ die, but I _don't._ Like, if I fall right now, I'm done for. Except I _won't_ fall. I'm in control. I'm besting the universe.

"Internal existential monologues will not help you escape this conversation," Ashley tells me, likely rolling her eyes as she clings to me to avoid falling off. "Seriously, tell me."

"It's just- like, Ty and Alesa, they… They're… Are they..?"

"Ty's not interested. Alesa's getting over it, slowly but surely," Ashley replies, and I can feel her shrugging behind me. "You literally don't have a single thing to worry about."

I shake my head. "He's _so_ mad at me right now."

"Not mad enough to randomly fall out of love with you. He's only mad _because_ he loves you."

"No, Ashley, you- you don't _get_ it," I say, voice trembling. "He- Just a few moments ago, you know, when we were stuck in that half-way place? Ty _specifically said,_ 'This doesn't mean I'm in love with you.' He didn't- _doesn't-_ Augh."

"He's in denial," Ashley says simply.

"Your _face_ is in denial."

She sighs. "All right, sure. Think what you want, but you and he, you'll end up together in the end."

I'm quiet a while, since I don't know how to respond. I would _hope_ things would end like that, but… Well, I doubt they will.

"We aren't moving nearly as quickly as we were with the Notch deer," Ashley says after a long, _long_ bout of silence. "This will be a long trip. We might as well try to get some sleep."

"Think it's safe to lie down up here?" I ask, turning around to face her.

"Probably. And the ghast is still going in the direction we had it pointed in last, even though we aren't leaning anymore, so… I think we're set."

"We should probably take shifts so that one of us will be awake to land this thing when we get there."

"That's a good idea. I'll take first shift, you can get some sleep."

"Are you sure? 'Cause I can definitely go first-"

"No. Go to sleep." She snorts. "No wet dreams while you're so close to me, okay?"

I groan as I lie down and try to get situated. "Shut up, Ashley." She just laughs.

A few quiet moments later, she mutters, "Nighty night, Sky. Sweet dreams. Really."

"Thanks."


	8. Seven Days

_AHH THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER AHHH_

 _IT SEEMS RUSHED NEAR THE END ;-; WHAT DO YOU THINK?_

 _ANYWAYS AHSLFAJSDKL FJDSKLGJSD_

 _ALSO I FINISHED WRITING ADDICT_

 _AND ILL JUST GIVE U GUYS THE SAME SPEECH I GAVE THEM_

 _IM WRITING A **NEW** BOOK ABOUT TWO BEST FRIENDS WHO ARE ROOMATES_

 _EXCEPT THEYRE ALSO EACH OTHERS ARCHNEMSIS XD CUZ LIKE THEYRE A SUPERHERO AND VILLAIN BUT SECRET IDENTITIES AND ALL THAT AND THE HERO IS IN LOVE WITH THE VILLAINS CIVILIAN FORM OK AND HE BECOMES A HERO SOLELY TO PROTECT THE CIVILIAN VILLAIN AND ITS JUST CHAOS OK XD_

 _BUT **I NEED YOUR HELP**_

 _WHAT SHIP SHOULD I USE?_

 _IM THINKING EITHER MUNCHINGUNIVERSE, PHAN, OR MEROME._

 _OPINIONS/SUGGESTIONS?_

 _ **ALSO** ILL ADD ANOTHER CHAPTER TO THIS BOOK ONCE I MAKE THE ONESHOT BOOK, BUT I DONT KNKOW WHEN THAT WILL BE XD_

 _ANNNYWAYSSS, FOR HTE LAST TIME IN THIS BOOK..._

 _EN-JUH-HOY, MY BE-AY-YOO-TIFUL RULERS._

 **Remember Me**

 **Ch 8: Seven Days**

 **Sky's POV**

"Sky, we have a problem!" Ashley yells, and I jump to my feet and then sway a little in the wind.

"Oh, right, we're in the sky. Heh, Sky in the sky."

 _"Sky!"_ Ashley shouts sharply, and my eyes widen as I spin around to face her.

"What _is_ it? Are you okay?"

"It's Jason and Tyler, their ghast turned on them!"

"Oh, crap," I mumble, peering over the edge of our ghast. Sure enough, Jason and Tyler's ghast is frantically swerving around, trying to rid itself of its riders. From the height they're at, a fall would mean absolute death – and, at the rate this is going, it won't be long until they fall. "Ashley, drive ours down beneath theirs!"

"Will do!" she replies, leaning forward and pushing the ghast's head down. "What's the plan?"

"Just try to keep our ghast steady underneath theirs!"

"Got it!"

"JASON! TYLER!" I screech, cupping my hands around my mouth and leaning over the side of the ghast. "YOU NEED TO- DANG IT, WIND! SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO COMMUNICATE!" There's no _way_ they can hear me over the wind. Ashley swerves a little, still not managing to get beneath Jason and Tyler, and I lean out over the side of the ghast a little more in an attempt to get closer. "JASO- FRICK!"

Ashley screams as I fall.

"Was that lucky, or what?" I ask Jason as he spins around to look at me with wide eyes. I've managed to land on his ghast.

"What even- Sky, what!?"

"Right. So, Ashley is working on getting our ghast below yours. When she's in position: we jump."

"You're insane!" Tyler yells, trying to steer the ghast. "I'm not doing that!"

"Hello, Not Doing That, I'm Insane," I say patiently, smiling at them both. Jason groans.

"Tyler, it's the best plan we've got right now," Jason says, turning to look at Tyler. We all waver a bit as the ghast lurches to the right, and Tyler grimaces.

"Fine. Is she in position yet?"

"Uh…" I glance over the side of the ghast, careful not to fall off this time. "Yes! She is. Jump?"

Tyler groans. "Jump."

"Woohoo!" I shout as I leap off the ghast, carefully aiming toward Ashley's ghast below. She's not _too_ far below, though, so there isn't exactly all that much time to be aiming- I shriek as I nearly miss the ghast, but Ashley, being the angel that she is, manages to catch my hand before I can properly fall, and she and Tyler pull me up into a safer position.

"Knew that would go badly," Tyler grumbles, and I grin.

"But it worked!"

"Um, but we still need to deal with the wild ghast," Jason comments nervously, and I glance up at the traitorous mob.

"Well, crap," I mutter, because I haven't got a _clue_ what to do about _that._

 **Brice's POV**

"That was such a very Sky-like thing to do," Seto chuckles.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Did we just remember Sky?"

"I believe we did."

"Eep, cool!"

"Our friends are preparing to fall to their deaths."

"O-Oh, right. Um, could you maybe, like, unsummon the ghast?" I ask desperately, peering down at the ghast that is seriously about to burn us all to the ground.

"Yes, of course," Seto replies, closing his eyes. _"Vade ad inferos,"_ a scary grin appears on his face as he chants and begins to hover a bit above our ghast. _"Te oderunt nos."_

"Seto, maybe calm down a small bit?" I squeak, tugging on the sleeve of his cloak as dark purple magic swirls around him and the out-of-control ghast. The ghast suddenly _poofs_ away, and Seto's eyes fly open as he touches his feet down to the top of the ghast again.

"I'm fine," he assures me a little too quickly, smiling slightly. "I've got control."

"Right, and I've got blonde hair."

"Actually, you sort of have. The black's beginning to grow out."

"Oh, cool!"

"Yes. Ah, it seems to me that we are falling. Perhaps I am _not_ in control."

"SETO!" I screech, flailing in the air as I realize the ghast has disappeared from beneath _us_. All of my friends are screaming, too, squeezing their eyes shut as they plummet to their deaths. "SETO, WHAT THE CRAP?"

"I may have miscalculated a small bit," he explains calmly, crossing his arms as he falls. "My apologies."

"SETO, CUT THE CRAP AND SAVE US! I AM _NOT_ IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR PRETENTIOUS BULLCRAP RIGHT NOW."

His eyes widen. "Ah, you see, Brice, I would love to. I would _really_ love to."

"Oh, no," I groan.

"Unfortunately, it is very fun to make you uncomfortable," he finishes as a Cheshire grin appears on his face. "Perhaps you've noticed that we've been _falling in place_ for the last few moments?"

"Oh my Jeb, Seto."

"Yeah, we're fine. I still apologize, however, for my mistake with the ghasts."

"And I apologize for not dealing with your pretentious bullcrap."

"I AM SO STRESSED RIGHT NOW," Ty comments from a dozen or so meters away.

"Oh, dear, fear of heights, yes," Seto mutters, gently dropping us all to the ground.

Sky hits the ground running and is at Ty's side in an instant, which is not exactly a huge surprise. Meanwhile, I hug Seto tightly and hope he's not too angry with me for calling him 'pretentious.'

 **Ty's POV**

I'm practically hyperventilating by the time we finally hit the ground (albeit very gently), and Sky is almost instantly sitting on his knees in front of me, telling me to take deep breaths, to calm down because it's okay now, I'm okay now, we're okay now.

"Oh, Notch," I groan, feeling a bit nauseous.

"Shh, it's all right, Ty! Agh, I'm so sorry," Sky says, hugging me to him tightly. "I said I would protect you but I couldn't, and I'm so sorry."

Oh, Notch.

It has been only six days, and that is not okay. I don't care if, like, if it's just old feelings breaking through the memory block or whatever, but if I've really just managed to fall in love that quickly- nothing good ever comes of something like this. You can't fall in love _this_ quickly, it just doesn't work like that! You fall in 'love' quickly, you fall _out_ of love quickly.

I can't do that to Sky.

What if it _isn't_ just a bunch of feelings from before the memory erasure? What if I'm really just being foolish? Sure, there's a chance it could be real, that it could be long and lasting. _There's a chance._ But there's also a chance that it's just stupidity, and that would end with one or both of us winding up with a broken heart.

Can't hurt Sky like that.

"Well, we've only a day left," Seto says, biting his lip and interrupting my internal monologue. "And I don't quite trust myself to do another successful summon."

Alesa shrugs. "I say we run."

"That might be our only remaining option," Seto sighs.

"We'll make it," I say semi-confidently, pushing aside my thoughts and my nausea and getting to my feet. "Everyone's food bars full?"

They nod hesitantly.

"Then let's sprint!"

"It's getting late," Ashley comments as we all sprint through the city gates. Jason stops and pants for a bit, and Tyler shakes his head and grabs his hand, pulling him forward.

"Yeah, the sun set _hours_ ago," Alesa worries, glancing up at the moon. "We have 'till midnight?"

"We have 'till midnight," Seto confirms. "We can still make this."

"Well, hurry up, then!" Sky calls, darting ahead of us all and into Seto's lab. "Do you need any help?"

"No, sir," Seto replies, running in and immediately popping the two cure potions into a potion brewer. "This will only take about half an hour. Go wait in the old medic room."

"The weird disease-handling room?"

"Yeah, that. I'll meet you up there soon. Keep an eye on the clock, yell at me if it gets to be later than, say, eleven thirty."

"It's eleven thirty-one," Tyler laughs nervously, looking at a clock on the wall.

Seto curses under his breath and casts a spell on the brewing stand. "Okay. I'll get it done, ten minutes, tops. Go sit down in the medic room."

"Okay, okay, yeah," Sky mutters anxiously, and then he and the rest of us, save for Seto, run upstairs.

"Are we even sure the deadline is midnight?" Ashley asks as we take our seats in the disease room. Sky, Jason, Tyler, and Ashley sit on the bed, and Alesa, Brice, and I sit on the floor.

"It could've been earlier," Brice admits helplessly, shrugging his shoulders. "But it definitely won't be later."

"I mean, most of us have remembered our Sky memories, anyways," Jason reminds us, specifically avoiding eye contact with me. It's fine! I don't even _want_ to remember, anyways! I am _not_ in love with Sky. I was _never_ in love with Sky.

"Well, we don't know about the rest of Team Crafted," Tyler points out. "Ssunkipz and Merome haven't even re-met Sky yet."

Sky's phone buzzes, and he raises an eyebrow and takes it out of his pocket. _"From: Benja,"_ Sky reads aloud, snorting afterwards. I guess that sort of answers our question, mostly. _"So apparently a bunch of the city forgot you, lol xD jayrome wants to know why, cuz now he and Ssunkipz and I cant guilt-trip the hunger deans people into letting us jump automatically into the best lobby xD"_

Sky snorts again and then whispers, "Tenouttaten, best friends, would friend again," and I have to try really, _really_ hard not to laugh. Dang.

Sky isn't funny. Really, he's not! I don't love his jokes. I don't.

Sky's phone dings, and he looks down at it again. _"lol nvm so like apparently your name is written in budder blocks on the side of the lobby? so yeah theyre remembering pretty easily xD"_

"Well, that answers that," Alesa laughs. "But why didn't they forget..?"

Sky shrugs. "Merome are kind of idiots, so maybe that had something to do with it."

"Way to be gentle," I grumble, and Sky laughs and I frown because his laugh is just a little too amazing for me to handle.

"What about Ssunkipz, though?" Jason asks.

"Hmm. Well, I spent about as much time with Annie as I did with Ashley; maybe Annie remembered somehow and then she jogged Quentin's memory, and then Quentin helped Ian."

"Maybe the memory-erasing thing started with the people who were standing closest to Sky when he died and then moved on to the people who were farther away," Brice suggests. "Maybe they never even forgot in the first place."

"But Seto, Brice, Alesa, and Jason were all here at the lab when I died," Sky says, frowning. "And Mitch and Jerome were only a few feet away from me in the asylum. Augh, this is too confusing."

"There are a lot – and I mean a _lot_ of other factors involved. Really, only Notch and the other devs can know what truly happened," Seto informs us as he walks into the room. Most of us stand up to greet him.

"Did you finish already?" I ask, eyes wide.

"I did, and I also- also ran some tests." He glances down at the print-out in his hand, and then over at the greyish-pink potion in his other hand.

"So, what about the tests..?" Jason asks.

"Well," Seto begins hesitantly, his eyes glued to his paper, "ah, I don't- I don't recognize all of these elements. One of them _can_ be fatal, when mixed with a certain different element, but- I, I'm sorry, I can't tell whether that other certain element is actually present here. Also, because this potion will be digging deep into Sky's code, if he dies because of the potion, he _might_ not respawn." He looks up at Sky. "On the other hand, if you _don't_ die, everyone who hasn't remembered you already will certainly remember you. Are you sure you want to try this?"

Sky bites his lip for a moment. "U-Um… Is there any chance that the rest of you guys will remember me on your own?"

Seto smiles sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Sky, but anyone who hasn't already shown signs of beginning to remember – for example, brief flashbacks, or a few words or terms remembered – well, it's highly unlikely that there will be any remembering for them after the week ends. Any unused backup code that made up those memories will be deleted, for real, very, very soon."

"Eleven fifty-eight," Tyler says worriedly.

"Um…" Sky glances up at me, and then back down at his feet. "Yeah. I wanna do it."

Seto's smile turns sad as he pours the potion into a different glass bottle, stirs it quickly with his magic, hands the potion over to Sky, who sits back down on the bed "I'll be on standby in case the potion does have negative effects, but… well, if the damage is dealt instantly, I won't be able to save you."

"But there _is_ a chance that it'll make Ty- er, I mean, everyone else remember me?" Sky asks, looking warily at the potion.

"Yes."

"Sky, come on, don't do it," Jason begs, stepping forward. "You don't need to! Most of us remember you!"

"Yeah, but… Some of you don't," Sky replies, shrugging helplessly.

"So?"

"So, I have to do this, or I'll spend the rest of my life wishing I hadn't been so cowardly today."

"But- But you might not _have_ a 'rest of your life' after this."

"Eleven fifty-nine," Tyler whispers.

"Hashtag worth it," Sky replies, grinning goofily, though his eyes are scared. He widens his smile a bit more, and then he tips the potion bottle up to his mouth-

 _"I-I'm sorry, Ty."_

 _"W-What? N-No, no, what? You can't die, we- That girl is dead! S-She's gone! You **have** to be okay now, that's how it **works,** Sky, we **won!** "_

 _"... D-Don't forget me, okay?"_

 _"Believe me, I-I won't. … Wait, S-Sky, I- I- Sky?"_

"No, no, no," I mumble, closing my eyes.

 _"I'll miss you…"_

"No, stop!" I shout, my eyes flying open. Seto raises an eyebrow, and Sky looks up at me in concern. "Stop, I- I lost him once, I don't want to- don't want to lose him again," I mutter, looking down at my feet.

"Ty?" Sky asks softly, and I look back up at him.

"Look, I- I don't- I don't _remember_ you, and I _want_ to, I really do! But, more than that, I want to… want to _keep_ you. Um, if that makes any sense. I just-" My voice breaks, and my next words sound horribly desperate. _"I don't want to lose you."_

"Is it…" Sky winces. "Is it okay to say I love you?"

I shrug, smiling nervously.

"Yolo," Sky says, mimicking my shrug. He stands up, hands the potion back to Seto, and hugs me tightly, one hand on my back and the other in my hair as he buries his face in my neck. "I love you, Ty."

Only seven days.

 _Screw it._

"I- I'd like to know what it feels like to love you back, Sky. I think I'm already getting there," I laugh. "But- But I'll need help. So… could you remind me?"

"It would be my pleasure," Sky whispers, pulling back a bit to look me in the eye. And then something inside me makes me lean towards him again, and then I'm kissing him like I've done it hundreds of times, like it's just _natural,_ like it's _in my code_ for me to love this boy, like this boy was _made for me_ and _I_ was made for _him._

"Someone owes Alesa ten diamond blocks," Seto laughs, and that sets off the rest of the Team, and soon we're all laughing with each other and just flat out _having a good time,_ and do you know what?

The room doesn't feel so empty anymore.


End file.
